>>'\ 


.^OFPRIN^ 


A 


l^fOZ-OGICALSO^^ 

.2' 


A 


ADDRESSES 


GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN 


Delivered  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  at  Eight  Conferences  held 
BETWEEN  October  21,  1903,  and  May  u,  1904 


WITH  APPENDIX 


SECOISTD      THOXJSANID 


PRINTED    AND    CIRCULATED 

BY   THE 

ST.  JOHN  CONFERENCE  COMMITTEE 

PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. 
1906 


BINGHAM    PAPER    BOX  CO. 

PRINTERS 

NEW   LONDON,   CONN. 


PREFACE. 


During  the  year  1902-3  a  series  of  Saturday  afternoon  conferences  for  pastors, 
addressed  by  Seminary  Professors,  was  held  at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Hall  in  Providence. 
The  subjects  and  speakers  were  as  follows  :  — 

November  29,  1902.  "  The  Unique  Character  of  the  Gospel  of  John  ".  Profess- 
or M.  W.  Jacobus,  D.D.,  and  Professor  C.  S.  Beardslee,  D.D.,  of  Hartford  Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

January  31,  1903.  "The  Grace  and  Truth  that  came  by  Jesus  Christ".  (John 
I  :  17  and  i  :  14).  Professor  George  B.  Stevens,  D.D.,  and  Professor  Frank  K. 
Sanders,  D.D.,  of  the  Yale  Divinity  School. 

March  7.  "Johannine  Antitheses".  Professor  Henry  C.  Sheldon,  S.T.D., 
of  the  Boston  University  School  of  Theology. 

April  18.  "The  Father,  the  Saviour,  the  Comforter".  (John  14).  Professor 
William  H.  Ryder,  D.D.,  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

May  16.  "That  they  all  may  be  one".  (John  17).  President  W.  H.  P. 
Faunce,  D.D.,  and  Professor  Henry  T.  Fowler,  Ph.D.,  of  Brown  University. 

Several  of  the  above  named  Professors  spoke  in  churches  of  the  city  on  themes 
in  John's  Gospel  on  the  Sundays  following  the  Conferences. 

*  Previous  to  this  series  of  conferences  many  pastors  in  Rhode  Island  had 
taken  up  this  Gospel  in  the  mid-week  meeting  of  the  church.  Dr.  Henry  M.  King, 
Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  of  Providence,  in  introducing  Professors 
Jacobus  and  Beardslee  at  the  first  of  the  above  mentioned  conferences  spoke  as 
follows  concerning  the  experience  of  his  own  church  the  preceding  year  : — 

' '  I  have  never  had  a  year  of  such  prayer  meetings  in  all  my  ministry.  The 
attendance  has  been  increased  and  an  unusually  large  number  of  people  have  taken 


*A  series  of  monthly  conferences  had  also  been  held  in  South-Western  Washington  County,  R.  1., 
under  the  auspices  of  a  Washington  County  Interdenominational  Committee  of  which  Rev.  Alexander 
McLearn,  Pastor  of  the  Seventh  Day  Baptist  Church  of  Rockville,  R.  I.,  was  chairman.  The  study  of  the 
Gospel  was  begun  on  December  4,  1900  (Rockville),  and  completed  July  24,  1901.  Between  these  dates  over 
fifty  conferences  were  held  in  fifteen  different  villages,  three  of  these  being  held  in  Connecticut.  Three 
chapters  were  taken  each  month.  The  conferences  were  conducted  and  addressed  by  the  local  pastors, 
assisted  by  the  ministers  of  Westerly.  Several  speakers  came  from  a  distance,  viz. :  Professor  Frederick  L. 
Anderson,  D.D.,  of  Newton  Theological  Institution,  Professor  Wm.  H.  Ryder,  D.D.,of  Andover  Theological 
Seminary,  Professor  Charles  F.  Kent,  Ph.D.,  of  Brown  University  (now  of  Yale),  Rev.  L.  L.  Henson,  D.D., 
and  Rev.  L.  S.  Woodworth,  of  Providence, 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  editors  of  the  local  papers,  viz.:  Hon.  George  H.  Utter  of  the  Westerly 
Daily  Sun,  Mr.  Edward  T.  Spencer  of  the  Hope  Valley  Advertiser,  and  Mr.  John  Larkin  of  the  Hope  Valley 
Free  Press,  a  series  of  "  Talks  on  John's  Gospel "  had  been  published  at  frequent  intervals,  contributed  to 
by  well  known  ministers  of  Rhode  Island  and  other  states.  It  had  been  hoped  that  this  valuable  series  might 
be  included  in  the  present  volume,  but  the  limits  of  space  did  not  permit.  A  few  of  these  articles,  however, 
of  a  nature  supplementary  to  the  Providence  Addresses  are  printed  in  the  Appendix  (see  pp.  444-480). 
Those  contributing  to  this  series  were  the  following:  Rev.  Edward  Abbott,  D.D.,  Rev.  James  Church 
Alvord,  Rev.  Wm.  C.  Bitting,  D.D.,  Rev.  George  A.  Conibear,  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Dick,  Ph.D.,  Rev.  John 
G.  Dutton,  Rev.  Edward  O.  Grisbrook,  Professor  Doremus  A.Hayes,  Ph.D.,  S.T.D.,  LL.D.,  Rev.  Dorr  A. 


vi  PREFACE. 

Goodwin,  Rev.  John  R.  Brown,  Rev.  Archibald  McCord,  Rev.  J.  Francis  Cooper, 
Rev.  Henrv  M.  King.  D.  D. 

Rev.  T.  H.  Root  (Alton,  R.  I.)  was  elected  to  act  as  Secretary. 

Other  committees  were  constituted  as  follows:  — 

Finance  Committee — Hon.  Rathbone  Gardner,  Chairman,  Mr.  A.  B.  McCrillis, 
Mr.  C.  E.  Hancock,  Mr.  Albert  C.  Day,  Rev.  John  M.  Lowden,  Mr.  J.  \Vm.  Rice, 
Mr.  Geo.  P.  Peterson,  Mr.  H.  E.  Thurston,  Mr.  David  Wilmot,  Rev.  A.  E.  Krom, 
Dr.  F.  B.  Sprague,  Mr.  C.  R.  Thurston,  Rev.  Robert  Cameron,  D.D.,  Hon.  D. 
Russell  Brown.  Rev.  A.  J  Coultas,  Mr.  E.  P.  Metcalf,  Mr.  Wm.  A.  Walton,  Hon. 
C.  C.  Mumford.  Mr.  John  F.  Greene,  Mr.  F.  O.  Bishop,  Rev.  Robert  B.  Parker, 
Mr.  F.  H.  Fuller,  Mr.  Gideon  G.  Congdon.  Mr.  F.  W.  Marden,  Dr.  Albert  L.  Mor- 
rison, Mr.  T.  W.  Waterman,  Hon.  X.  W.  Littlefield. 

Publication  Committee — Rev.  Edward  C.  Bass,  D.D.,  Chairman,  Rev.  T.  E. 
Bartlett,  Rev.  Levi  B  Edwards,  Rev.  M.  S.  McCord,  D.D.,  Rev.  George  A.  Conibear, 
Rev.  John  J.  Hall.  Rev.  H.  C.  Lowden,  Rev.  Wm.  H.  Durfee,  Rev.  T.  F.  Xorris, 
Rev.  Warren  Dawley.  Rev.  Clayton  A.  Burdick,  Mr.  A.  B.  McCrillis,  Hon.  N.  W. 
Littlefield,  Mr.  Herbert  E.  Drake,  Hon.  D.  L.  D.  Granger,  Mr.  X.  A.  Westcott, 
Mr.  Edward  P.  Metcalf,  Mr.  Albert  C.  Day. 

The  programs  of  the  eight  Conferences  held  during  the  year  1903-4,  giving 
dates,  speakers,  subjects,*  etc..  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  (pp.  4S7-492).  Of 
the  fifty-four  addresses  delivered  fifty-two  are  printed  either  in  full  or  in  part  in 
this  volume.  Two  of  the  addresses  are  absent  as  the  speakers  were  unable  to 
furnish  manuscript.  In  arranging  the  Conferences  it  has  been  the  purpose  of  the 
committee  that  they  should  represent  the  consensus  of  the  thought  of  the  Church. 
It  has  not  been  the  purpose  to  introduce  the  controversial  element.  The  committee 
do  not.  of  course,  assume  responsibility  for  any  of  the  opinions  expressed.  The 
value  of  the  volume  is  much  increased  by  the  verv  complete  analvsis  by  Professor 
Anderson  and  by  the  Suggestive  Studies  and  References  by  Professor  Beardslee, 
both  of  which  were  prepared  expressly  for  the  Rhode  Island  pastors :  also  by 
several  articles  contributed  to  the  series  in  the  press  (see  note.  p.  iii.  Preface).  It  is 
believed  that  the  Indices  to  Authors  and  to  Texts  will  also  add  interest  and  useful- 
ness to  the  volume. 

The  Rhode  Island  churches  appreciate  very  deeplv  the  great  service  rendered 
without  remuneration  by  the  Conference  speakers.  It  was  entirely  on  their  part  a 
labor  of  love  for  the  Gospel,  and  of  desire  to  assist  the  Rhode  Island  pastors  in  this 
work.  The  deep  interest  which  followed  the  successive  Conferences  on  the  part  of 
the  large  audiences  that  gathered  from  month  to  month  was  a  sufficient  attestation 
of  the  spiritual  strength  and  scholarly  power  brought  to  the  Conferences  by  men 
of  many  types  of  mind  and  of  various  ecclesiastical  fellowships.  The  following 
words  by  the  Providence  correspondent  of  the  "  Watchman"  were  written  immed- 
iately after  the  first  Conference  : — "  The  speakers  were  men  competent  to  instruct 
as  well  as  to  kindle  ardor  for  truth.  Xo  series  of  meetings  in  this  generation  in 
Providence  has  so  taken  hold  of  the  best  minds  in  all  churches.  Teachers  repre- 
senting the  leading  denominations  come  with  their  best  thought  to  expound  the 
profound  teaching  of  John  ".  At  the  close  of  the  series  the  following  statement 
was  made  by  President  Faunce  of  Brown  University  : — "  One  of  the  most  valuable 
helps  to  the  intellectual  and  religious  life  of  the  city  of  Providence  during  the  past 


*It  will  be  observed  that  many  of  the  great  themes  of  the  Gospel  and  very  many  of  the  secondary 
themes  have  not  been  treated.  Several  of  these  were  assigned  either  to  professors  or  to  ministers,  but  those 
to  whom  requests  were  sent,  were  anable  to  respond  because  of  engagements  already  entered  into.  The 
TOlnme  by  what  it  omits  to  do  as  well  as  by  what  it  does  will  suggest  the  inexhaustible  riches  of  this  Gospel. 


PREFACE.  vii 

year  has  been  the  series  of  really  remarkable  Conferences  on  the  Gospel  of  John. 
Seldom  have  we  had  in  our  city  so  many  speakers  of  eminence  on  religious  themes, 
and  never  have  we  had  more  deeply  interested  audiences". 

The  Conferences  were,  to  quote  the  words  of  Bishop  Jaggar,  a  "  manifestation 
of  the  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bonds  of  peace".  Through  many  voices  it  was 
the  one  church  that  spoke,  and  the  consciousness  of  the  one  church  was  deepened 
in  the  minds  of  all  who  attended.  The  Conferences  bore  signal  witness  to  the 
growing  unity  of  Christians,  and  to  the  strength  of  united  effort. 

One  familiar  with  St.  John's  Gospel  will  readily  understand  why  it  has  been 
chosen  for  special  presentation  in  this  way.  The  Gospel  of  St.  John  is  remarkable 
in  its  unity  of  structure,  in  its  singleness  of  purpose  in  portraying  Jesus  as  the 
Christ,  in  the  richness  and  profoundness  of  its  teachings,  and  in  its  unique  revela- 
tion of  the  personality  and  work  of  Christ.  It  is  pervaded  throughout  by  the 
deepest  spirit  of  poetry  and  is  characterized  by  the  deepest  philosophic  insight. 
It  speaks  to  the  hearts  and  minds  of  all  Christians,  regardless  of  denomination  or 
theological  outlook.  Both  liberal  and  conservative  are  one  in  their  love  of  this 
book.  Testimony  to  its  power,  to  the  depth  and  clearness,  the  grandeur  and 
simplicityof  its  revelation  of  the  Master  is  found  in  every  age  and  in  every  body 
of  Christians. 

It  is  the  most  vital  and  vitalizing  of  the  Gospels,  preeminent  in  its  urgent  en- 
joining both  of  the  "new  commandment"  as  the  organic  law  of  the  Christian 
Church  and  also  of  the  militant  purpose  of  winning  men  to  Christ.  In  it  are  found 
not  only  the  principles  but  also  the  methods  for  which  the  church  in  the  present  day 
is  so  earnestly  seeking  as  the  means  of  a  more  vital  and  fruitful  work.  It  throbs 
intensely  with  the  very  heart  of  Christ.  Meditation  on  and  practice  of  its  truths 
are  the  only  means  by  which  the  heart  of  Christ  may  become  the  heart  of  the 
Church. 

It  has  been  called  the  Theological  Gospel  because  interpreting  so  deeply  the 
Person  and  Teachings  of  Christ ;  the  Evangelical  Gospel  because  so  intensely 
permeated  with  the  purpose  that  men  may  believe;*  it  might  also  be  called  the 
Ethical  Gospel  so  lofty  is  its  standard  of  Christian  obligation  in  its  insistence  on 
obedience  to  the  commands  of  Christ  and  on  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God.  (It 
was  well  said  by  one  of  the  Conference  speakers  that  a  book  would  yet  be  written 
on  the  Ethics  of  St.  John's  Gospel).  It  has  its  peculiar  grip  on  the  heart  and  life 
because  in  it  the  disciple  is  brought  into  the  very  presence  of  the  heart  and  mind  of 
the  Master.  It  presents  the  psychology  of  the  Christian  life  becavise  it  reveals  so 
much  of  the  inmost  consciousness  of  Christ,  and  because  in  it  Christ  makes  clear 
so  many  of  the  inner  relationships  of  truth  and  life  in  the  soul  of  the  disciple.  Its 
keynotes  are  universal  words.  It  appeals  to  those  who  seek  the  eternal  truth  and 
life  and  love.  To  the  mind  of  today  it  presents  Christianity  in  a  peculiarly 
sympathetic  way. 


*  In  response  to  the  question,  "  Do  you  think  the  purpose  of  the  author  was  to  win  those  not  believing 
to  belief  in  Christ,  or  to  deepen  the  belief  of  believers  ?  "  the  following  informal  replies  were  received  :  — 

Professor  Anthony: — "  I  regard  the  Gospel  as  an  apologetic,  written  both  to  coii/irm,  and  to  pro- 
duce, belief'. 

Professor  Beardslee: — "  I  should  prefer  not  to  try  to  distinguish,  as  your  question  suggests.  I  should 
rather  say  in  general  that  its  aim  was  to  engender  and  establish  faith  ". 

Professor  Hayes: — "  Why  may  we  not  say  that  John  wrote  primarily  for  the  church,  to  establish  it  in 
the  faith:  but  with  the  whole  world  of  readers  in  the  background  of  his  thought  ?" 

Professor  Jacobus: — "  If,  as  seems  most  likely,  the  F'irst  Epistle  of  John  was  written  in  connection 
with  the  Gospel  of  John,  it  would  seem  almost  beyond  question  that  the  Gospel  itself  was  written  for 
those  who  were  already  Christians  but  who,  under  the  influence  of  false  teaching  regarding  Christ  and  the 


viii  PREFACE. 

It  was  said  by  a  German  philosopher  of  the  first  half  of  the  century  just  closed, 
that  the  Gospel  of  John  was  the  Gospel  of  the  church  of  the  future  ;  that  the  church 
of  that  time  was  not  yet  up  to  it.  Whether  or  not  this  were  true  for  that  time  and 
country,  we  do  not  believe  it  is  true  of  the  church  in  America  today.  No  Gospel 
is  so  dear,  and  none  appeals  so  strongly  to  Christian  people  as  this  Gospel. t  The 
church  finds  itself — its  purposes,  its  ideals,  its  aspirations,  its  duty,  its  work,  its 
life,  in  this  Gospel  written  by  the  beloved  apostle.  And  in  coming  to  this  Gospel  it 
also  becomes  deeply  conscious  of  its  own  failures  and  shortcomings. 

In  emphasizing  the  peculiar  worth  and  function  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  value 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  must  not  be  underestimated.  It  is  only  after  a  study  of 
St.  John  that  the  range,  the  depth  and  the  crystalline  clearness  of  the  Synoptic 
records  can  be  fully  appreciated.  The  Christ  portrayed  by  St.  John  is  the  Christ 
who  is  revealed  to  us  as  by  a  lightning  flash  in  Matthew  1 1  :  25-30  and  Luke  10  :  2 1 ,  22 

We  can  not  refrain  from  quoting  here  the  closing  words  of  Professor  Riggs  in 
the  Outlines  mentioned  above  (see  no*^e,  p.  iv  of  Preface)  : — 

"Our  study  of  this  noble  Gospel  has  come  to  an  end.  To  that  study  which 
makes  experience,  life  the  chief  interpreter,  there  can  never  be  an  end.     It  calls  us 


fThc  uniqueness  of  John's  Gospel  consists,  among  other  things,  in  its  unique  presentation  of  these  three 
cardinal  ideas  of  Christianity: —  belief  in  Jesus  as  the  Christ;  obedience  to  the  "new  comniandment "  ; 
the  relationship  to  God  of  being  "  sent ". 

I.  To  show  the  emphasis  placed  on  this  ruling  idea  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  passages  bearing  on  this 
subject  of  belief  in  Jesus  as  the  Christ  are  given  herewith:  1:7  — 1:12  — 1:50 — 2:11 — 2:23  —  3:15  — 
3  :  16  — 3:18  — 3:36  — 4:39  — 4:41  —  4:42  — 4:53  — 5:38  — 5:44  — 5:46  — 5:47  — 6:29  — 6:30  — 6:  35  — 
6:  36  —  6:  40  —  6:  47  —  6:  64  —  6:  69  —  7:5  —  7:  31  —  7:  38  —  7:  39  —  7:  48  —  8:  24— 8:  30— 8:31  — 
8:  45  —  8:  46  — 9  :  35  —  9  :  36  —  9  :  38  —  10:  25  —  10:  26  —  10:  37  —  10  :  38  —  10  :  42  —  11  :  15  —  11  :  25  — 

11  :  26  —  II  :  27  —  II  :  40  —  11  :  42  —  "  :  45  —  11  :  48  —  12  :  11  —  12:  36  —  12  :  37  —  12:  39  —  12  :  42  — 

12  :  44  —  12  :  i,(>  —  13  :i9  — 14  :i  —  14  :io — 14  :  11  — 14  :i2  — 14:  29  — 16  :9 — 16  :  27  — 16  :3o — 16  :  31  — 
17:8  —  17:  20  —  17:21  —  19:35  —  20  :8  —  20:  25  —  20:27  —  20:  29  —  20:31.  The  purpose  of  John's  Gospel 
to  demonstrate  that  Jesus  is  the  true  and  eternal  life  for  every  man  represents  the  militant  character  of 
Christianity.  Acceptance  of  the  principles  and  standards  of  Christianity  means  acceptance  of  and  devotion 
to  the  purpose  and  work  of  Christ  "  that  the  world  may  believe".  The  spirit  of  the  church  is  one  of  con- 
quest.    It  is  indeed  a  militant  church. 

II.  The  new  life  brought  into  the  world  by  Christ  (as  revealed  in  the  cross)  must  be  embodied  m  a  new 
law,  and  that  law,  stated  with  special  reference  to  the  relation  of  the  disciples  one  to  another,  is  the  "  new 
commandment  ".    The  law  of  self-sacrificing  love  even  unto  death  which  was  the  principle  of  His  life,  is  to  be 


Christian  life,  needed  to  have  the  teachings  of  Christ  regarding  Himself  and  His  religion  placed  before 
them  in  new  and  impressive  ways. 

"This  would  seem  to  be  confirmed  by  the  definite  statement  of  the  author  of  the  Gospel  at  the  close  of 
the  twentieth  chapter,  which  speaks  of  the  Gospel  as  presenting  Jesus  as  the  Christ  through  faith  in  whom, 
that  is  through  a  real  and  vital  faith  in  whom  alone,  a  full  and  vital  Christian  life  is  possible". 

Professor  Nash: — "  I  do  not  believe  that  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  consciously  separated  the 
two  things.  But  the  end  and  aim  is  the  demonstration  to  the  world  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  of  God.  The 
other  motive,  however,  was  a  part  of  the  whole  ". 

Professor  Sitterly: — "  Like  John's  Epistles  and  Apocalypses  I  am  of  opinion  that  his  Gospel  was 
written  to  strengthen  '  the  belief  of  believers '  ". 

Professor  Stevens: — "  I  should  say  the  Fourth  Gospel  was  written  for  Christian  Churches  and 
believers,  as  were  the  other  three,  and  in  order  to  produce  and  develop  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  assumes,  as 
already  existing,  some  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  facts,  and  an  already  existing  germ  of  Christian  faith  on 
the  part  of  its  readers". 

Professor  White: — "  I  do  not  know  what  is  the  basis  for  the  opinion  held  by  some  that  the  Gospel 
was  written  for  believers  chiefly.  It  certainly  does  greatly  strengthen  believers,  but  I  do  think  it  was 
written  primarily  for  outsiders.     Surely  the  statement  of  20:  30,  31  looks  strongly  towards  this". 

Professor  Whitford : — "I  think  that  John's  purpose  was  to  produce  faith  in  Jesus.  Of  course  such 
a  book  as  his  can  not  fail  to  strengthen  the  faith  of  those  who  already  believe". 

See  also  pages  99-106  and  other  passages  throughout  the  book. 


PREFACE.  ix 

to  go  on  to  know  the  Lord  through  all  the  profound  realities  of  communion  and 
obedience  which  involve  the  ultimate  depths  of  life.  The  deeper  we  go  by  this 
wav  of  interpretation  the  surer  shall  we  be  that  this  is  no  fabricated  portrait  of  the 
Master.  It  is  rather  the  picture  of  one  who  saw  not  merely  the  scenery  of  Galilee 
and  Judea,  nor  simply  the  external  forms  of  that  memorable  group  now  known  as 
Master  and  Disciples,  but  whose  profoundly  religious  spirit,  touched,  illumined, 
guided  by  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  grasped  the  eternal  significance  of  Him  to  whom 
His  life  had  been  given.  Is  there  a  subjective  element  in  John  ?  Of  course  there  is, 
but  it  is  the  subjectivism  of  one  whose  insight  was  directed  to  the  inner,  eternal 
meanings  of  Jesus.  Rightly  has  it  been  said  that  John  saw  Jesus  and  His  truth 
sub  specie  Eternitatis.     Does  that  make  the  Gospel  less  true?     Evidence  enough 


the  principle  of  their  life.  Thus  the  actual  life  of  Christ  is  to  become  the  actual  life  of  the  church.  He  calls 
the  disciples  unto  Him  that  they  may  possess  this  life  and  in  turn  be  workers  with  Him  in  bringing  this  life  to 
others. 

Through  the  "new  commandment"  the  power  of  the  cross  becomes  the  power  of  the  church 
organizing  Csee  p.  276)  its  heterogeneons  and  oftentimes  apparently  irreconcilable  elements  into  a  deep  and 
living  unity.  This  is  the  great  miracle  which  when  accomplished  proves  to  the  world  the  genuineness  of 
Christian  discipleship  (13:35)  and  also  the  divineness  of  Christ's  mission  (17:21).  Failure  to  observe  the 
"  new  commandment  "  has  been  the  cause  of  the  downfall  of  many  a  church.  The  militant  purpose  toward 
those  without  and  the  new  commandment  working  within  give  to  the  church  an  tsprit  de  corps  which 
makes  it  invincible. 

In  Chapters  i- 12  the  great  word  is  belief;  in  Chapters  13-21  the  great  word  is  lovi,  occasionally 
interwoven  with  the  word  beliff.  Belief  in  Christ  leads  to  love  for,  obedience  to,  nnion  with  Christ.  Belief 
is  the  gateway  to  the  eternal  life  of  self-sacrificing  Icve.  For  passages  bearing  on  the  "  new  command- 
ment"  and  on  the  unity  that  results  from  obedience  to  it,  see  13  :  34  —  13  :  35  — 15  :  12  — 15  :  13  —  15  :  17  — 
13  :  14-16  —  17:11  —  17:21  —  17:  22  — 17:  23  (see  also  13  :r  —  15  :9  —  17  :  26). 

III.  The  many  different  connections  in  which  Jesus  speaks  of  "  him  that  sent  me  "  show  how  centra 
and  fundamental  was  Jesus' consciousness  of  being  "sent".  The  iteration  and  reiteration  of  this  is  most 
striking.  It  is  an  ever  recurring  refrain  (as  in  "the  will  of  him  that  sent  me",  4  :  34  :  5  :  30  :  6  :  38:  cf. 
Matt.  6  :  10;  7:  21:  12:  50:  ro:  39.  42.  etc).  Christ  would  have  this  consciousness  become  the  consciousness 
of  the  church.  When  we  notice  that  the  phrase  "  sent "  in  connection  with  Christ  is  used  40  times  before  it  is 
used  in  the  final  passage,  we  realize  the  tremendous  impressiveness  of  the  words  of  Jesns, "  As  my  Father  hath 
sent  me, even  so  send  I  you"  (20  :  21;  see  also  17:18).  Relationship  with  Christ  in  learning  becomes  relation- 
ship with  Christ  in  being  "  sent  ".  Note  Professor  Nash's  definition  of  the  li\-ing  church  as  composed  of  those 
who  have  learned  how  to  pray  and  therefore  have  learned  how  to  work  (p.  157).  For  passages  see  3:17  — 
3:3'4  —  4  :  34  — 5  :  23  —  5  :  24  —  5  :3o—  5  =36  — 5  :37  — 5  :  38  — 6  :  29  — 6:38  — 6  :  39  — 6  :44— 6  :  57  — 
7  :  16  —  7  :  18  —  7  :  28  —  7  :  29  — 7  :  33  —  8  :  16  —  S  :  18  —  8  :  26 — 8  :  29  —  8  :  42  —  9:4  —  10  :  36  — 11:  42  — 
13:44  —  '"•45  —  12:49  —  13:20 —  14:24  —  15:21  — 16  :5  —  17:3  —  17:8  —  17:  18  —  17:  ai  —  17:  23  — 
17:25  —  20:21.  Cf.  Matt.  10:40;  Mk.9:37:  Lk.9:48:  10:16.  Christ's  relation  to  the  world  is  comple. 
mentary  to  His  relation  to  (jod.  The  force  with  which  He  is  sent  to  the  world  is  the  same  as  that  with  which 
He  is  sent  from  the  Father.  In  the  Synoptic  Gospels  the  emphasis  is  on  the  former;  in  the  Fourth  Gospel 
on  the  latter.     See  Lk.  3:  32  :   19  :  10  ;  Matt.  20  :  28  ;  15  :  24  ;  Lk.  4  :  43. 

As  is  seen  by  reading  the  references  under  the  above  headings  John's  Gospel  holds  up  to  us  in  a 
peculiarly  vivid  and  definite  way  Jesus"  consciousness  of  being  "  sent  "  to  do  the  will  of  God;  Jesus'  purpose 
that  the  world  may  believe;  Jesus' teaching  of  the  new  commandment  of  self-sacrificing  love.  These  three 
ideas  are  the  elemental  principles  of  Christianity.  They  represent  a  purpose,  life,  consciousness  of  Christ, 
which  in  turn  are  to  become  the  purpose,  life,  consciousness  of  the  church,  that  the  life  of  God  which  was  in 
Christ,  the  eternal  life  of  self-sacrificing  love  as  manifested  in  the  cross,  may  be  in  them:  "  I  in  them,  and 
thou  in  me.  that  they  may  be  f)erfected  into  one:  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou  didst  send  me,  and 
lovedst  them,  even  as  thou  lovedst  me".  The  militant  purpose  of  the  church  is  that  men  may  beheve,  its 
life  is  the  life  of  self-sacrificing  love,  its  consciousness  is  that  of  being  "  sent  ''  by  Christ.  A  church  with  such 
a  life  and  with  such  a  purpose  and  with  such  a  propulsive  force  from  Christ  its  Lord  has  within  itself  unlimited 
reserves  of  power. 

These  three  principles  represent  the  movement  of  the  Christian  life: — drawn  to  Christ  in  belief,  united 
»nth  one  another  in  love,  sent  out  into  the  world  in  service.  The  most  conspicuous  New  Testament  example 
of  marvellous  realization  of  this  three-fold  relationship  is  the  Apostle  Paul. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  these  three  cardinal  ideas  are  very  closely  involved  in  the  purpose  of  the  Gospel 
as  stated  in  20:  31.  Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  is  sent  into  the  world  that  men  may  believe,  and  that 
believing  they  may  enter  into  the  eternal  Ufe  of  self-sacrificing  love. 

This  is  He  whom  the  church  knows  as  King  of  Truth,  and  Life  of  the  human  race. 


X  PREFACE. 

there  is  of  its  historicity.  No  other  Gospel  is  more  faithful  to  historical  situations  ; 
no  other  Gospel  is  more  keenly  alive  to  psychological  presentations.  Its  portrai- 
ture of  Jesus,  different  as  is  its  setting  from  that  of  the  Synoptics,  is  thoroughly 
consistent  with  theirs.  What  they  exhibit  constantly  in  action  and  now  and  then 
by  word  is  here  completely  interpreted  in  that  blaze  of  glory  which  casts  a  noon-day 
clearness  upon  the  person  and  character  of  the  Messiah  ". 

During  the  progress  of  the  Conferences  subscriptions  for  a  proposed  volume 
were  taken  and  at  the  close  of  the  series  enough  had  been  received  to  ensure  the 
printing  of  the  addresses  given.  The  committee  are  especially  grateful  to  these 
earliest  subscribers  without  whose  prompt  support  the  volume  would  have  been 
impossible.  One  of  the  inspirations  in  the  work  of  the  Conferences  has  been  the 
fact  that  through  the  volume  a  medium  will  be  furnished  by  which  the  best  which 
a  large  city  like  Providence  can  command  will  be  made  available  for  the  pastor  and 
teacher  in  the  remotest  hamlet  of  the  state.  In  serving  the  Providence  churches 
the  speakers  have  been  serving  the  churches  of  the  entire  state.  The  interest 
which  has  been  manifested  by  many  outside  Rhode  Island  has  also  been  most 
gratifying.  Subscriptions  for  from  one  to  one  hundred  copies  have  been  received 
from  churches,  seminaries  and  individuals  beyond  the  borders  of  the  state.  The 
committee  are  most  grateful  to  the  speakers  for  their  constant  encouragement 
and  cooperation.  They  can  best  show  their  appreciation  of  this  cordial  support 
from  the  first  and  of  the  great  merit  of  the  addresses,  by  endeavoring  to  give  to 
the  volume  as  wide  a  circulation  as  possible.  Should  the  sale  of  the  book  be 
sufficient  to  give  a  surplus,  this  will  be  devoted  to  interdenominational  purposes. 

The  special  thanks  of  the  committee  are  due  to  Hon.  Nathan  W.  Littlefield  for 
his  generous  services  as  Treasurer  of  the  Conferences  and  for  much  labor  spent  in 
connection  with  the  Business  Men's  Lunch  of  January  13 ;  to  Rev.  Albert  F. 
Bassford,  a  student  in  Brown  University,  for  careful  stenographic  reports  of  many  of 
the  addresses  ;  also  to  Mr.  A.  B.  McCrillis  and  to  Mr.  Albert  C.  Day  for  important 
aid  rendered  in  receiving  subscriptions  from  outside  Rhode  Island.  Mr.  Day  has 
also  kindly  consented  to  act  as  Treasurer  of  the  Publication  Committee.  The 
committee  take  pleasure  also  in  acknowledging  the  uniform  courtesy  of  the  daily 
press  —  the  Journal  and  Bulletin,  the  News,  and  the  Telegram  —  in  reporting  the 
Conferences. 

Particularly  is  the  committee  under  obligation  to  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Bartlett, 
pastor  of  the  Pawtuxet  Baptist  Church,  who  has  corrected  the  proof  and  super- 
vised the  book  through  the  press,  and  for  whose  indefatigable  labor  and  constant 
vigilance  every  reader  will  be  grateful. 

The  Committee  wish  to  thank  most  heartily  all  those  who  whether  in  the  Con- 
ferences or  by  private  subscription  contributed  to  the  necessary  expenses  of  the 
Conferences ;  also  all  those  who  in  many  other  ways  have  aided  in  connection 
with  the  Conferences  or  in  connection  with  the  resulting  volume.  For  all  the 
Committees  as  well  as  for  very  many  individuals,  whose  names  are  not  mentioned 
in  the  volume  but  who  have  done  much  to  assist,  the  entire  work  connected  with 
both  Conferences  and  volume  has  been  a  labor  of  love. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface  ...........  iii 

Men  and  Events  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  — 

Professor  Charles  F.  Sitterly,  Ph.D.,  S.T.D.        .  .     '      .  i 

The  Study  of  the  Gospel  by   John  — 

President  Wilbert  W.  White,  Ph.D lo 

The  First  Chapter  — 

President  Wilbert  W.  White,  Ph.D 22 

The  Prologue—  (i  :  1-18)  — 

Professor  Clark  S.  Beardslee,  D.D.  ......  26 

John  the  Baptist  and  His  Gospel  — (i  :  19-37) — 

Professor  Wm.  Arnold  Stevens,  D.D. ,  LL.D.       .  ....  3° 

The  Call  of  the  First  Disciples  — (i  :  29-51)  — 

Rev.  A.  C.  Dixon,  D.D 42 

"  Sons  of  God  "  —  (i  :  12)  — 

Rev.  Floyd  W.  Tomkins,  S.T.D 5° 

"Full  of  Grace  and  Truth  "  —  (i  :  14)  — 

Professor  Henry  S.  Nash,  D.D 59 

The  Miracle  at  CanaCwith  an  Attempt  at  a  Philosophy  of  Miracles)  — 

(2:1-11)- 

President  Augustus  H.  Strong,  D.D.,  LL.D.       .....  63 

Jesus  and  Nicodemus— The  New  Birth  — (3:I-I5)  — 
Rev.  Edward  Abbott,  D.D.    ........  71 

Eternal  Life  Through  Belief— (3: 14-21)  — 

Rev.  Albert  H.  Plumb,  D.D. 76 

The  Optimism  of  Jesus  — (4: 1-42)  — 

Rev.  Frank  J.  Goodwin  ........  87 

The  Source  of  Jesus' Strength  — (4:34)  — 

Rev.  Willis  P.  Odell,  D.D.  9i 

The   Gospel   of  John    in   the    Spiritual    Life    of    the    Churches  — 

Rev.  Henry  M.  King,  D.D.     ........  99 

Some  Characteristics  of  the  Gospel  According  to  St.  John  — 

Rev.  Alexander  McKenzie,  D.D.    .......         107 

The  Works  OF  Jesus.    L    Resurrection  — (5 :  i 7-30)  — 

Rev.  George  P.  Eckman,  Ph.D.,  D.D 118 

The  Works  of  Jesus.    IL    Judgment  — (5: 17-30)  — 

Rev.  Charles  M.  Melden,  Ph.D.,  D.D 124 


xii  COl^TENTS. 

I'AGE 

The  Secret  of  Jesus'  Life  — (5:30)  — 

Rev.  John  Balcom  Shaw,  D.D.        .......  130 

Faith  in  Christ  the  Spring  of  Religious  Action  — (6:29)  — 

President  Nathan  E.  Wood,  D.D.  .  .  .136 

Jesus  the  Bread  of  Life  —  (6:30-59)  — 

Rev.  Cornelius  Woelfkin,  D.D.       .......  145 

The  Confession  of  Peter — Christ  the  World's  Only  Hope  and  Life  — 

(6:68,69)  — 

Professor  Henry  S.  Nash,  D.D.  .  .  .  .  .  •  i53 

Jesus' Controversies  with  the  Jev^^s  — 

Professor  Melancthon  W.  Jacobus,  D.D.  .....  161 

Unbelief  the  Fundamental  Sin  — 

Rev.  B.  L.  Whitman,  D.D.,  LL.D. 167 

Knowledge  of  the  Teaching  of  Jesus  Through  the  Doing  of  the 

Will  of  God  — (7:17)  — 

Rev.  Francis  J.  McConnell,  Ph.D.  ......         177 

Spirit  and  Life  —  (7:37-39)  — 

Rev.  Amory  H.  Bradford,  D.D .  187 

The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus  — (8:29,  46)  — 

Rev.  William  R.  Huntington,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  L.H.D 189 

The  Evidential  Value  of  Miracles  — 

Professor  Charles  W.  Rishell,  Ph. D '  .  .197 

Freedom  Through  the  Truth  — (8:31-36) — 

Rev.  Everett  D.  Burr,  D.D.  .......         205 

The  Home  at  Bethany  and  the  Friendships  of  Jesus  — (n  :  1-46;  12  :i-ii)  — 

Rev.  Donald  Sage  Mackay,  D.D.  ......  218 

The  Cross  the  World's  Evangel,  or  the  Christian  Law  of  Sacrifice 

in  Relation  to  Missions  — (12:20-32)  — 

Rev.  Henry  C.  Mabie,  D.D.  .......         224^ 

The  Attracting  Power  of  the  Cross  —  (12:32)  — 

Rev.  Avery  A.  Shaw,  M.A.  .......  236 

The  Commandment  of  God  and  Life  Everlasting  —  (12:49,50)  — 

Rev.  Stewart  Means,  D.D.    ........  249 

The  Washing  ofthe  Disciples'  Feet  and  the  Law  of  Service — (13: 1-17) — 

Rev.  Edwin  Alonzo  Blake,  Ph.D.,  D.D 257 

The  Glorification  of  the  Son  of  Man  —  (13:31,32)  — 

Professor  Samuel  Hart,  D.D.,  D.C.L.      ......         268 

Obedience  to  the  New  Commandment  the  Proof  of  Discipleship  — 

('3:34.  35)  — 

Rev.  Rockwell  H.  Potter       ........         275 

Mysticism  in  the  14th,  15th  and  i6th  Chapters  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  — 

Professor  Alfred  Williams  Anthony,  D.D.  .....  280 

Jesus  the  Revelation  of  the  Father  — (14:6-11)  — 

Professor  Henry  C.  Sheldon,  S.T.D 287 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

FAGS 

The  Presence  of  the  Father,  Son  and  Spirit  Through  Obedience  to 

THE  Commands  of  Christ  — (14: 21-26)  — 

Rev.  Robert  A.  Ashworth,  A.M.      .......         29s 

Friendship   with    Jesus    Through    Obedience    to    His    Commands— 

(15:14,15)  — 

Rev.  John  D.  Pickles,  Ph.D. 301 

"That  they  all  May  Be  One"  — (Chapter  17)  — 

Professor  Henry  T.  Fowler,  Ph.D. 306 

The  Unity  of  Christianity  as  Revealed   in  the  Prayer  of  Christ  — 

(Chapter  17)  — 

Professor  Henry  S.  Nash,  D.D.       .......  311 

Sanctification  in  the  Truth  — (17:  17-19)  — 

Rev.  D.  W.  Faunce,  D.D. 317 

The  Self-Surrender  of  Jesus  Christ  — (18:  n)  — 

Rev.  George  M.  Stone,  D.D.  .......         326 

The  Crucifixion— "It  is  Finished"  — (19:30)  — 

Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  A.  Jaggar,  D.D.  .  .  .  .  .  332 

The  Resurrection  the  Crowning  Fact  of  Christianity  — (Chapter  20)  — 

President  Herbert  Welch,  D.D.      .......  344 

The  Twenty-First  Chapter  — 

President  Henry  G.  Weston,  D.D.,  LL.D.  .  .  .  .  •         356 

The  Import  of  St.  John  21 :  15-17  — 

Rev.  Galusha  Anderson,  S.T.D.,  LL.D.  .....  366 

The  Teaching  Function  of  the  Church  — 

Professor  Frank  K.  Sanders,  Ph.D.,  D.D.  .....         380 

The  Method  of  Jesus  with  Individuals  — (3: 1-16;  4:  5-26)  — 

President  William  Douglas  Mackenzie,  D.D.      .....         382 

The  Personal  Equation  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  — 

Rev.  Frederic  Palmer,  A.M.  .......  390 

The  Author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  — 

Professor  Clark  S.  Beardslee,  D.D.  .....  397 


APPENDIX. 


Remarks  of   Governor  Garvin,  Mayor   Miller    and    Others   at  the 

Business  Men's  Lunch  of  January  13,  1904  .  .  .  .405 

Analysis  of  the  Gospel,  Embodying  also  Conference  Address  on  "  How 

the  Gospel  was  Made"  — 

Professor  Frederick  L.  Anderson,  D.D.  .....         414 

Suggestive  Studies  and  References  — 

Professor  Clark  S.  Beardslee,  D.D.  ......  437 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


The  Gospel  According  to  St.  John  — 

President  Henry  G.  Weston,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
The  Most  Remarkable  Gospel  — 

Professor  Doremus  A.  Hayes,  Ph.D.,  S.T.D.,  LL.D.     . 
''In  the  Beginning"— (i  :  i)  — 

Rev.  James  Lee  Mitchell,  Ph.D.      .... 
A  Lesson  in  Methods  — 

President  Edwin  M.  Poteat,  D.D. 
The  Condition  of  Entrance  Into  the  Kingdom  of  God  — (3:1-16) 

Professor  William  C.  Whitford,  A.M. 
The  Gospel  of  the  Conversations  — 

Rev.  James  G.  Vose,  D.D.  .... 

The  Principle  of  Missions  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  — 

Rev.  W.  C.  Bitting,  D.D 

Sanctification  Through  the  Truth  — (17: 17)  — 

Rev.  Horace  W.  Tilden,  D.D 

The  Dramatic  Movement  in  St.  John's  Gospel  — 

Rev.  Willard  Brown  Thorp  .... 

St.  John's  Teaching  of  Fatherhood  and  Sonship  — 

Rt.  Rev.  Frederic  Dan  Huntington,  S.T.D.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D. 
A  Hidden  Revelation  — (21 :  15-17)  — 

Rev.  James  Church  Alvord 
The  Unity  of  the  Church  — 

Rev.  C.  A.  L.  Richards,  D.D 

St.  John  in  all  Ages       ...... 


444 
447 
450 

453 
455 
458 

463 
468 

471 

474 

476 

478 
481 


PROGRAMS  AND  INDICES. 


Programs  of  the  Conferences 
Index  to  Authors 
Index  to  Texts 


487 
493 
502 


« 


But  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  god,  even  to  them  that  believe  on 
His  name. 

And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us, 
(and  we  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten 
of  the  Father,)  full  of  grace  and  truth. 

For  as  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself  ;  so  hath  He 

GIVEN   TO   THE   SON   TO   HAVE   LIFE   IN   HiMSELF. 

And  I,  IF  I  BE  LIFTED  UP  FROM  THE  EARTH,  WILL  DRAW 
ALL    MEN    UNTO    Me. 

I  AM  THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  WORLD:  HE  THAT  FOLLOWETH  Me 
SHALL  NOT  WALK  IN  DARKNESS,  BUT  SHALL  HAVE  THE  LIGHT 
OF    LIFE. 

A  NEW  COMMANDMENT  I  GIVE  UNTO  YOU,  THAT  YE  LOVE  ONE 
ANOTHER  ;  AS  I  HAVE  LOVED  YOU,  THAT  YE  ALSO  LOVE  ONE  ANOTHER. 
By  THIS  SHALL  ALL  MEN  KNOW  THAT  YE  ARE  My  DISCIPLES,  IF 
YE    HAVE    LOVE   ONE   TO    ANOTHER, 

If  a  MAN  LOVE  Me,  he  will  keep  My  words:  and  My 
Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will   come  unto   him,   and 

MAKE   our   abode   WITH    HIM. 

I  IN  THEM,  AND  ThOU  IN  Me,  THAT  THEY  MAY  BE  MADE 
perfect  IN  one;  and  that  the  world  MAY  KNOW  THAT  ThOU 
HAST   SENT   Me,  AND   HAST   LOVED  THEM,  AS   ThOU   HAST  LOVED  Me. 

As  My  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you. 


^ 


But  patient  stated  much  of  the  Lord's  life 

Forgotten  or  misdelivered,  and  let  it  work  : 

Since  much  that  at  the  first,  in  deed  and  word, 

Lay  simply  and  sufficiently  exposed. 

Had  grown  (or  else  my  soul  was  grown  to  match. 

Fed  through  such  years,  familiar  with  such  light. 

Guarded  and  guided  still  to  see  and  speak) 

Of  new  significance  and  fresh  result ; 

What  first  were  guessed  as  points,  I  now  knew  stars, 

And  named  them  in  the  Gospel  I  have  writ." 

—  Bro'M?iing:   "^  Death  in  the  Desert. 


'  MEN  AND  EVENTS  IN  THE  TIME  OF  JESUS. 
BY    i-iK\'.  c'h.vrIjKS  k.  t^i'X"rici*i^v,   fii.  I).,  «.  'V.  r>.. 

Professor  ok  Biki.ical  Literature  and  Exegesis  or  the  English  Bible,  Drew 
Theological  Seminary,  Madison,  N.  J. 

Whether  history  ever  repeats  itself  is  open  to  debate,  but  there  can  be 
no  question  that  the  historical  situation  into  which  Jesus  was  born  was 
wholly  unique.  Like  conditions  had  certainly  never  before  been  realized 
since  the  world  began,  and  it  is  just  as  clear  that  their  duplicate  can  never 
be  approximated  in  the  ages  to  come. 

The  signs  of  Jesus'  times  were  peculiarly  obscure  to  the  men  of  His 
generation,  but  they  have  ever  since  been  growing  more  significant  and 
luminous  until  today  even  the  rapid  runner  and  the  traveling  man  may 
rightly  read  them.  To  be  sure,  His  horoscope  had  been  cast  at  the  begin- 
ning with  a  definiteness  of  detail  both  as  to  time,  place,  and  singular  cir- 
cumstances, but  even  those  who  searched  the  Sacred  Writings  most  dili- 
gently missed  utterly  the  meaning  of  their  testimony  unto  Him,  and  it  fell 
in  His  day,  and  so  far  forth  until  the  present,  that  strangers  took  Him  in 
and  proclaimed  and  finally  crowned  Him,  while  they  who  were  His  own  not 
only  wilfully  misread  His  credentials  in  all  their  Scriptures  from  Moses 
until  John,  but  entering  into  partnership  with  the  proud  princes  of  this 
world,  they  finally  condemned  and  crucified  their  own  rightful  King. 

There  are  three  standpoints  from  which  one  may  view  any  great  his- 
torical character  with  profit,  and  these  contemplate  Him  in  His  relation  to 
the  social,  the  political,  and  the  religious  tendencies  of  His  times.  Of 
course,  these  relations  commingle,  and  they  may  not  be  arbitrarily  meas- 
ured as  separate  one  from  the  other,  but  they  are  capable  of  practical  dis- 
tinction and  are  certainly  helpful  to  orderly  discussion. 

When  Jesus,  after  thirty  years  of  preparation,  entered  upon  His  Messi- 
anic mission.  He  was  challenged  by  Satan  from  these  three  standpoints. 

(i)  "If  Thou  art  indeed  Son  of  God,  command  these  stones  to  become 
loaves  of  bread — abolish  hunger — make  poverty  impossible — command  men 
to  divide  their  inheritance — make  labor  lighter  or  do  away  with  it  alto- 
gether. Command  the  earth  to  bring  forth  loaves  of  bread  already  baked  ; 
give  us  manna  for  the  mere  gathering,  as  Moses  did  ". 

(2)  "  If  Thou  art  Son  of  God,  seize  the  reins  of  royalty — become  the 
universal  king.  Thou  seest  the  separate  parts  of  that  empire  and  the  glory 
of  them — they  are  all  mine,  and  by  adopting  my  methods  they  can  all  become 
yours  ". 

(3)  "  If  Thou  art  Son  of  God,  appeal  boldly  to  the  superstitious  ele- 
ment in  mankind — cast  Thyself  down  from  the  temple-top  and  let  angels 
bear  Thee  visibly  up — ^make  display  of  Thy  powers — conjure  up  and  play 
upon  the  innate  love  of  man  for  the  spectacular  and  unreal — the  world  is 


*  Delivered  at  the  First  Conference,  held  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  October  21,  1903. 


2  THE  GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHN. 

always  ready  for  such  leadership — worship  me  and  I  will  bring  you  the 
homage  of  millions  of  men  ". 

Thus  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth  tested  in  His  three-fold  nature,  and  by  a 
careful  contemplation  of  the  three  fields  from  which  His  temptation  sprang 
may  we  obtain  some  added  appreciation  of  His  unique  personality  and 
mission. 

I.  First,  then,  we  will  consider  the  social  conditions  of  the  world  into 
which  Jesus  was  born,  and  I  use  the  word  "  social "  in  the  work-a-day  or 
domestic  sense,  inclusive  of  physical  and  temporal  environment.  In  the 
province  of  Galilee,  where  most  happily  Jesus  was  brought  up,  there  existed 
in  miniature  all  the  diverse  conditions  and  combinations  of  human  society. 
Galilee  was  the  garden  of  the  Holy  Land,  and  its  native  or  Jewish  popula- 
tion was  very  largely  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  To  engage  in  man- 
ual labor  was  no  disgrace  to  the  Hebrew,  the  disgrace  rested  rather  upon 
him  who  would  not  work.  Oil,  wine,  wheat,  fruits,  and  fish  were  produced 
in  great  quantities.  Abundance  of  flax  was  raised,  and  the  linen  fabrics 
made  by  the  women  of  Galilee  were  of  unusual  fineness  and  beauty.  A 
peculiar  kind  of  pottery,  made  from  the  black  clay  found  in  the  region  of 
Cana,  was  highly  esteemed  throughout  Syria.  Magdala  boasted  of  over 
300  shops  where  pigeons  for  the  sacrifices  were  sold,  Safed  was  celebrated 
for  its  honey,  Shikmonah  for  its  pomegranates,  Akabar  for  the  raising  of 
pheasants,  and  Sepphoris,  the  hitherto  capital  of  the  province,  was  noted 
for  the  production  of  grain  and  fruit,  Arbela  was  celebrated  for  its  manufac- 
ture of  cloth,  Tarichaea,  on  Lake  Galilee,  was  known  throughout  the  east 
for  its  extensive  fish  factories,  and  from  this  same  port  on  the  lake,  Josephus 
in  his  day  collected  a  fleet  of  230  ships  to  lead  in  the  attack  upon  Tiberias. 
It  is  evident  from  the  mounds  of  ruins  which  today  line  the  shores  of  that 
little  lake  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  souls  teemed  about  it  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  Christian  era,  and  it  is  entirely  probable  that  between  two  and 
three  million  people  found  residence  in  the  200  cities  of  this  prosperous 
province  of  Galilee.  The  majority  of  these  towns  were  distinctively  Jewish, 
made  up  of  families  whose  heads  were  by  right  as  proud  of  their  pure 
lineage  as  any  household  of  Judea,  but  there  was  far  less  of  narrowness  and 
racial  exclusiveness  than  in  the  more  southern  shire.  Business  interests 
were  broader  and  more  truly  cosmopolitan,  and  then,  as  now,  the  measure 
of  prosperity  was  more  evenly  shared  and  the  commoner  blessings  of  life 
were  more  generally  distributed  than  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Jewish  capital. 
The  very  fact  of  their  comparative  isolation,  on  account  of  their  distance 
from  the  sacred  center,  together  with  that  of  their  proximity  to  distinctly 
Gentile  communities,  tended  to  deepen  and  intensify  racial  pride  and 
patriotism  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  broadened  the  provincials  in  a  most 
wholesome  way.  The  malicious  fling  at  Jesus  as  one  "  from  Nazareth,"  and 
as  "  a  Galilean,"  did  not  reflect  either  as  wide-spread  or  as  deep-seated  a 
contempt  as  is  too  often  supposed,  and  it  will  be  recalled  that  many  of  the 
best  disciplined  and  the  most  efficient  forces  which  supported  the  national 
cause,  both  with  blood  and  with  treasure,  from  the  time  of  the  Maccabees 
to  those  of  Bar  Chochba,  were  drawn  from  Galilee.     But  it  was  appropri- 


MEN  AND  EVENTS  IN  THE  TIME  OF  JESUS.  3- 

ately  called  "Galilee  of  the  Gentiles,"  and  the  non- Jewish  element  must  be 
clearly  recognized.  The  most  marked  foreign  factor  is  properly  called 
Greek,  although  the  government  was  actually  Roman.  But  from  the  days 
of  Alexander  the  Great  and  his  Seleucid  successors,  Greek  fashions,  Greek 
ideas,  and  the  Greek  language  had  taken  deep  hold  upon  the  northern 
province  of  Palestine.  From  Ptolemais,  on  the  seacoast,  to  the  group  of 
ten  Greek  cities  called  Decapolis,  in  the  upper  Jordan  valley,  there  was  a 
chain  of  Greek  communities  right  across  Galilee,  which  inevitably  and 
indelibly  influenced  her  people,  and  when  we  remember  that  all  of  the  New 
Testament  writings,  as  they  have  come  down  to  us,  have  been  in  Greek, 
and  more  than  half  of  its  writers  were  natives  of  this  province,  we  realize 
how  mighty  that  influence  must  have  been.  We  are  able,  also,  to  see  why 
the  people  of  Galilee  lacked  the  narrow  prejudices  so  common  to  those  of 
Judea,  and  to  understand  how  the  foreign  elements  among  them  tended  to 
develop  and  enlarge  their  minds  and  characters.  This  is  doubtless  one  of 
the  chief  reasons  why  Christ  and  His  cosmopolitan  system  of  ethics  and 
morals  received  so  favorable  a  hearing  in  Galilee,  and  why  so  large  a  pro- 
portion of  His  disciples  came  from  that  province.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  II  of  the  apostolic  12  were  Galileans,  one  only  being  chosen  from 
Judea,  "  and  he  was  a  devil.''  We  find,  then,  that  what  we  have  called  the 
social  atmosphere  in  which  Jesus  Himself  was  developed,  and  in  turn  devel- 
oped His  heaven-born  Gospel,  was  peculiarly  healthy  as  an  environment  for 
the  reception  of  that  Gospel  both  from  the  purity  of  its  native  elements  and 
from  the  world  affinities  and  outgoings  of  its  foreign  ingredients. 

H.  Let  us  now  ascend  an  exceeding  high  mountain,  and  behold  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world  in  the  first  century,  and  the  glory  of  them,  and 
see  what  attitude  our  Saviour  takes  toward  \\\q  political  situation  about  Him, 
Born  during  the  Augustan  age  at  the  very  climax  of  Rome's  imperial  pros- 
perity, with  the  ears  of  all  men  still  ringing  with  the  renown  of  the  Caesars, 
and  their  mouths  full  of  the  tales  of  conspiracies  and  plots,  the  passions 
and  the  exploits  of  a  Pompey,  a  Brutus,  a  Cassius,  an  Antony  and  a  Cleo- 
patra, all  of  whom  had  marched  and  countermarched  across  the  Galilean 
plains,  with  the  national  tales  of  Maccabean  bravery  and  valor  and  of 
Herodian  duplicity  and  diabolism,  smarting  under  the  repeated  levies  of 
talents  and  of  troops  to  keep  up  the  pagan  pageant,  what  real  patriot  could 
fail  to  feel  the  rising  within  him  of  a  spirit  of  unquenchable  hatred  for 
everything  foreign,  and  a  desire  for  revenge,  and  that  only  equal  to  the 
depths  of  shame  and  of  outrage  which  his  land  and  his  people  had  endured 
for  generations.'  And  Jesus  was  a  most  intense  patriot,  who  yearned  after 
the  betterment  of  His  own  people  and  nation  with  a  fervent  passion  which 
at  times  seemed  almost  to  consume  Him.  To  Him,  Palestine  was  already 
the  Holy  Land,  and  He  loved  its  hills  and  vales  and  water  courses  and 
mountains,  its  solitudes  and  forests,  and  its  teeming  cities  and  overflowing 
capital  with  an  affection  which  no  one  else  except,  perhaps,  David  had  ever 
approximated.  He  admired  the  splendid  new  temple  even  then  in  process 
of  building,  and  coveted  it  as  "  for  all  nations  the  house  of  prayer  ",  and  He 
enjoyed  the  architectural  renaissance,  which  was  filling  with  great  structures 


4  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

every  corner  of  the  land,  but  He  could  not  fail  to  read  in  these  things  the 
extension  of  Beelzebub's  kingdom,  and  He  was  not  deceived.  Although 
Jesus  was  born  in  the  reign  and  dominion  of  Herod  the  Great,  He  passed 
His  life  as  a  civil  subject  of  Herod  Antipas,  whose  tetrarchate  of  Galilee 
covered  the  entire  period  of  Christ's  career.  Antipas  inherited  the  political 
cunning  of  the  greater  Herod  and  ruled  his  province  with  marked  success, 
trimming  adroitly  between  the  prejudices  and  customs  of  his  Jewish  and 
Greek  subjects,  never  failing  in  his  loyalty  to  Tiberius  Caesar,  in  whose 
honor  he  built  and  named  the  new  capital  on  the  lake,  and  yet  never  pro- 
voking to  the  brink  of  rebellion  the  liberty-loving  spirit  of  the  Galileans. 
Christ  correctly  measured  and  labeled  him  "that  fox".  The  province  of 
Judea  was  so  much  harder  to  control  that,  after  the  death  of  the  first 
Herod,  who  for  over  40  years  ruled  it  as  with  a  rod  of  iron  and  not  improp- 
erly thereby  won  the  title  of  "Great",  it  was  taken  under  the  immediate 
oversight  of  Roman  procurators,  of  whom  Pontius  Pilate  was  the"  sixth 
successive  appointee  within  20  years.  But  Herod  the  Great  had  utterly 
demoralized  and  incapacitated  the  capital  province  for  loyalty  either  to  the 
traditions  of  the  fathers  or  to  the  political  policies  of  its  later  masters. 
No  more  consummate  master  in  the  art  of  corrupt  diplomacy  probably  ever 
lived,  or  more  supple  acrobat  in  the  arena  of  spectacular  public  service  than 
the  first  Herod,  but  he  was  not  altogether  bad  nor  was  his  reign  altogether 
without  effect  in  preparing  the  hearts  of  the  Hebrews  more  willingly  to 
receive  a  spiritual  kingdom  and  king.  His  glory  as  a  builder  of  great  pub- 
lic works  was  scarcely  second  to  that  of  Solomon,  and  in  Palestine  even 
today  one  may  trace  his  handiwork  from  end  to  end  of  the  land.  In  Jeru- 
salem he  began  by  rebuilding  the  citadel  of  the  temple,  which  he  renamed 
Antonia  in  honor  of  Antony.  He  then  built  a  group  of  impregnable  towers 
on  the  north  front  of  Zion.  Next  came  a  stadium,  a  theatre,  and  an 
amphitheatre,  which  last  occasioned  a  conspiracy  well-nigh  costing  him  his 
life.  Turning  now  from  the  capital,  he  began  to  fortify  and  garrison  various 
parts  of  the  country,  in  readiness  for  revolt.  He  built  two  strong  castles, 
known  respectively  as  the  Herodium  in  Judea  and  the  Herodium  in  Arabia, 
and  rebuilt  four  well-situated  Asmonean  strongholds,  which  had  fallen  into 
ruin.  Samaria,  Caesarea,  Gaba  and  Heshbon  he  fortified  and  lavishly 
equipped  as  militar>'  posts.  In  the  case  of  Csesarea,  he  spent  12  years  in 
developing  a  splendid  seaport,  erecting  quays,  moles,  towers,  sewers,  col- 
onnades, palaces,  and  temples,  as  well  as  an  amphitheatre,  a  theatre,  and  a 
hippodrome.  This  soon  became  the  Roman  center  of  the  realm.  Here,  as 
well  as  at  Jerusalem,  games  were  instituted  in  honor  of  the  emperor  every 
four  years.  These  comprised  gymnastic  and  musical  games,  chariot  races, 
and  contests  with  wild  beasts,  and  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  the  mass 
of  the  population,  which  was,  of  course,  Jewish,  kept  themselves  from 
attending  them.  Thus  the  generation  to  which  Jesus  belonged  was  deeply 
tainted  with  tastes  and  tendencies  from  which  only  a  reformer  "  whose  fan 
was  m  his  hand  ",  and  whose  scourge  of  stinging  thongs  could  exorcise  or 
purge  them. 


MEN  AND  EVENTS  IN  THE  TIME  OE  JESUS.  5 

But  the  process  of  political  servitude,  so  cleverly  concealed  and  so  ably 
carried  out  by  Herod  and  his  successors,  had  taken  such  vital  hold  upon 
the  nation  that  when  at  last  the  Messiah  was  heralded  by  his  forerunner  and 
proclaimed  from  Heaven,  and  accredited  by  many  mighty  works  and  words 
of  his  own,  neither  leaders  nor  multitudes  were  able  to  break  the  hypnotic 
spell  that  rested  upon  them  while  they  cried  "  Away  with  Him,  away  with 
Him,  crucify  Him,  crucify  Him,  we  have  no  King  but  Caisar  ". 

HI.  This  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  religious  situation  which 
involves  a  problem  whose  complexity  well  nigh  defies  satisfactory  solution. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  spiritual  life  of  the  pagan  world  had  dwindled 
to  the  vanishing  point.  Among  the  Hebrews  a  few  families,  scattered  more 
often  in  rural  villages  and  communities  of  the  Diaspora,  kept  the  pure  light 
of  intelligent  faith  and  pious  living  glowing  in  the  hearts  of  a  saving  remnant, 
but  the  nation  as  a  whole  was  hopelessly  divided  into  contentious  factions 
incapable  of  responding  to  common  appeals  or  leadership  except  along  the 
lines  of  the  basest  passions  and  prejudices.  The  two  poles  we  may  say, 
around  which  these  extremes  of  religious  energy  centured  vi&xe  pietism  and 
scribism.  As  has  been  well  said  "  the  fact  that  a  village  became  a  town 
when  once  it  possessed  ten  men  who  agreed  to  be  regular  attendants  upon 
the  synagogue  and  the  additional  fact  that  later  it  became  customary  to  pay 
these  men  for  attending  service,  certainly  does  not  heighten  one's  confidence 
in  popular  piety  ".  Nevertheless  the  clear  glimpses  which  the  gospels  give 
of  unfeigned  faith  and  genuine  spirituality  in  a  few  sporadic  cases  is  evidence 
that  the  synagogue  was  not  the  only  school  or  source  of  religious  activity. 
The  prophetess  Anna  was  not  alone  in  her  sympathy  with  Mary's  glad  con- 
fidence in  the  Messianic  future  of  her  first-born  son  for  "  she  spake  of  Him 
unto  all  them  that  looked  for  redemption  in  Jerusalem  ".  Nor  was  Simeon 
the  only  saint  awaiting  in  expectant  joy  the  consolation  of  Israel,  nor  was 
Zacharias  the  only  priest,  nor  Nicodemus  the  only  rabbi,  nor  Nathaniel  the 
only  Israelite  who  were  righteous  and  sincere  and  guileless  inquirers  into 
the  deepest  meaning  of  Christ's  visitation.  Moreover,  the  fact  is  too  often 
entirely  overlooked  that  Jesus,  as  well  as  The  Baptist,  did  in  truth  arouse 
and  sustain  a  ready  and  genuine  response  to  His  uncompromising  demands, 
and  that  His  death  was  accomplished  before  He  had  been  teaching  his 
doctrine  of  other-worldliness  three  short  years,  and,  ///<?;' largely  in  a  province 
away  from  the  capital,  all  because  His  accusers  felt  and  feared  that  they 
could  not  themselves  long  continue  to  deceive  the  people,  if  He  were  per- 
mitted to  live  and  teach  among  them.  Under  the  head  of  Pietism  may 
properly  be  named  a  small  but  worthy  group  of  men  known  as  Essenes. 
In  its  most  flourishing  period  the  number  of  the  Essenes  did  not  exceed 
four  thousand  nor  did  they  enter  into  vital  relations  with  the  national 
life,  yet  they  gave  striking  utterance  to  the  spirit  of  religious  protest 
against  the  tendency  toward  both  legalism  and  secularism  which  prevailed. 
Probably  no  section  of  Hebrew  society  in  the  days  of  Jesus  contributed 
more  to  prepare  the  public  mind  for  the  reception  of  His  teaching  than  the 
Essenes.  Some  have  gone  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  the  household  of 
Nazareth  belonged  to  this  sect  and  that  our  Lord's  silence   respecting  it 


6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

arises  from  this  fact.  The  oft-quoted  account  which  Heggesippus  gives  of 
James,  the  Lord's  brother  and  leader  of  the  Jerusalem  church,  is  construed 
with  some  show  of  reason  as  indicating  the  possession  by  that  just  man  of  the 
spirit,  if  not  the  enthusiasm  of  an  Essene,  while  such  practices  among  the 
early  Christians  as  the  common  meal  and  their  desire  to  hold  all  things  in 
common  as  well  as  the  early  rise  of  monasticism  among  them  are  all 
explained  in  the  same  way.  "  The  cheerful  confidence  in  God,  the  love  of 
peace,  the  unselfish  life,  the  communism,  the  simplicity,  the  acceptance  for 
order's  sake  of  the  law  of  the  land  and  its  administrators,  combined  with 
contempt  for  worldly  dignities  and  disdain  of  personal  aggrandizement,  the 
love  of  one  another,  the  tenderness  toward  children,  to  the  weak,  the  sick, 
the  aged,  and  the  distressed,  the  love  of  purity  and  solitude  as  enabling  the 
powers  of  the  Spirit  to  recreate  and  display  themselves,  the  avoidance  of 
oaths,  the  doctrine  that  great  truths  are  not  welcome  and  therefore  not  bene- 
ficial to  unprepared  persons,  these  are  rare  attributes,  but  common  to  the 
Essenes  and  the  immediate  followers  of  Jesus  ".     (Keningale  Cook). 

From  the  same  writer  we  quote  : — "  Jesus  was  wont  to  argue  not  only  in 
a  sublime  and  generous  manner  of  His  own,  but  also  in  the  subtle  manner 
with  which  the  doctors  of  the  law  were  conversant.  He  used  the  forms  of 
His  times,  and,  perhaps,  would  else  have  been  unintelligible,  but  His  own 
splendid  powers  shine  through.  He  could  not  have  remained  in  any  sect 
and  the  Essenes  for  all  their  spirituality  and  fraternity  were  a  narrow  and 
prejudiced  sect,  while  He  manifests  the  broad,  unsectarian  impress  of 
Heaven  ".  In  these  words  we  have  the  best  that  can  be  said  relative  to  the 
similarity  of  Jesus'  teaching  to  that  of  the  Essenes  and  they  are  of  value  as 
showing  that  among  at  least  one  important  section  of  Jewish  society  in 
Jesus'  day  the  elements  of  a  true,  religious  culture  were  openly  recognized 
and  cherished. 

Under  the  term  Scribisni  vs\z.y  be  collated  all  those  movements  among 
the  religious  leaders  of  the  nation  which  sprang  from  various  methods  of 
interpreting  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Hebrews.  In  addition  to  the  priest- 
hood after  the  restoration  of  the  Jews  from  exile,  there  arose  a  very  influen- 
tial class  known  as  the  Scribes.  Their  great  model  was  Ezra,  whose 
work  in  restoring  the  national  capital  and  institutions  was  only  equalled  by 
that  upon  the  Sacred  Canon.  As  the  common  speech  of  the  Hebrews 
departed  further  and  further  from  that  of  the  Fathers  and  their  earlier 
literature,  a  class  of  expert  copyists  and  interpreters  sprang  up,  and  a  new 
national  institution  gradually  took  form  whicfi  became  their  peculiar  arena 
known  as  the  synagogue.  This  movement  and  institution  promised  much  as 
a  means  of  preserving  pure  and  untainted  the  national  consciousness  relative 
to  its  calling  and  destiny,  and  its  influence  may  be  clearly  traced  down  to 
the  present  day ;  but  it  has  always  sadly  failed  to  grasp  the  deep  spiritual 
message  of  the  Scriptures  it  has  so  faithfully  guarded  and  preserved. 
Although  the  Scribes  in  Jesus'  day  were  broader  and  more  numerous  than 
any  one  sect,  doubtless  the  larger  number  were  included  in  that  influential 
fraternity  known  as  the  Pharisees.  As .  their  name  indicates  they  were 
"  separatists  "  because  they  insisted  on  the  separation  of  God's  people  from 


MEN  AND  EVENTS  IN  THE  TIME  OF  JESUS.  7 

all  the  defilements  and  snares  of  the  heathen  life  around  them.  Their  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  was  reverence  for  the  law  and  "their  religion  was 
the  religion  of  a  book".  Intensely  earnest  at  its  beginning,  Pharisaism  in 
the  time  of  Jesus  had  lost  its  fervor  and  shrivelled  up  into  zealous  formalism. 
The  written  law  of  Moses  had  been  overlaid  and  superseded  by  the  oral 
interpretations  of  the  elders  known  as  the  Traditions  of  the  Fathers,  and 
thus  the  Pharisees  and  their  Scribes  '■'■sat  in  Moses''  seat".  Together  they 
controlled  the  services  of  the  synagogue  with  the  various  ablutions  needful 
to  the  maintainance  of  ceremonial  purity,  the  distinctions  between  clean  and 
unclean  food,  the  times  and  ways  of  fasting  and  the  wearing  of  fringes  and 
phylacteries. 

Their  insincerity  and  bigotry  in  the  case  of  Sabbath  observance  was  so 
amazing  that  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  Jesus  stigmatizing  both  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  as  hyprocrites  and  as  "  whited  sepulchres  which  outwardly 
appear  beautiful  but  inwardly  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  ".  Certain  rab- 
binical writers  were  wont  to  classify  the  Pharisees  under  seven  heads. 

(i)  The  Shoulder  Pharisee  who  wore  openly  on  his  shoulder  a  list  of 
his  own  good  actions. 

(2)  The  Temporizing  Pharisee  who  begged  for  time  in  order  to  per- 
form a  good  deed. 

(3)  The  Calculating  Pharisee  who  said  "  my  sins  are  more  than  coun- 
terbalanced by  my  virtues  ". 

(4)  The  Saving  Pharisee  who  said  "I  will  save  a  little  of  my  modest 
fortune  to  perform  a  work  of  charity  ". 

(5)  The  Pharisee  who  said  "  would  that  I  knew  of  a  sin  I  had  myself 
committed  that  I  might  make  reparation  by  an  act  of  virtue  ". 

(6)  The  God-fearing  Pharisee  (as  Job). 

(7)  The  God-loving  Pharisee  (as  Abraham). 

The  Sadducees  were  of  the  aristocratic  class,  taking  their  name,  as  some 
have  thought,  from  the  house  of  Zadok,  an  ancient  and  honored  priestly 
family  and  a  long-time  center  of  exclusiveness  and  bigotry.  They  had  been 
successful  in  gaining  and  holding  the  high  priesthood  and  had  largely 
shaped  the  affairs  of  State.  Being  brought  into  contact  with  foreign  ideas 
they  had  become  liberal,  and  found  in  their  nation's  growth  in  temporal 
power  and  influence  their  greatest  satisfaction.  Thus  a  worldly  spirit  dom- 
inated them  in  life  and  doctrine.  "They  had  but  little  sympathy  with  the 
rigid  demand  that  religion  should  be  the  motive  and  measure  of  all  action. 
They  honored  the  law  but  refused  to  consider  the  traditions  of  the  elders  as 
obligatory  upon  them.  Their  faith  rested  upon  the  7vriiten  law  and  they 
could  find  no  sanction  in  their  accepted  scriptures  for  the  doctrine  of  a 
resurrection  of  the  body  or  of  retribution  in  another  world.  They  therefore 
rejected  both  ".  To  the  Sadducees  the  deeper  doctrines  and  preaching  of 
Christ  appeared  doubly  visionary  and  far-fetched,  and  although  they  had 
but  little  interest  in  His  apparent  iconoclasm,  they  were  easily  led  at  length 
to  see  that  their  earthly   prospects  were   being  seriously  threatened  and 


8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

willingly  gave  themselves  to  carrying  out  the  extreme  plans  of  their  Scribes 
as  well  as  those  of  the  Pharisees  in  condemning  and  crucifying  the  Son  of 
Man. 

Above  and  beyond  all  other  elements  of  Scribism  stood  the  great  Council 
or  Sanhedrin  of  Jerusalem.  This  body  falsely  claimed  to  be  the  successor 
of  Ezra's  great  synagogue  or  assembly,  but  the  former  was  a  college  of 
Scribes  for  settling  questions  of  theology,  whereas  the  Gerousia  or  Sanhedrin 
was  distinctly  a  governing  body,  exercising  the  power  or  powers  which  in 
earlier  days  belonged  almost  exclusively  to  the  High  Priest,  Although  the 
Sadducees  filled  both  the  High  Priesthood  and  the  majority  of  the  Sanhed- 
rin, it  is  noteworthy  that  the  Pharisees  sometimes  arose  to  a  point  of  influence 
surpassing  both  combined.  The  functions  of  the  Sanhedrin  were  numerous. 
It  passed  laws  and  was  therefore  a  legislative  body.  It  executed  judgment 
and  possessed  the  most  extensive  powers.  It  dealt  with  questions  of  doc- 
trine. It  kept  in  its  archives  the  geneological  tables  of  the  principal  Jewish 
families.  It  even  authorized  wars  and  fixed  the  limits  of  towns,  and  alone 
had  the  power  of  modifying  their  precincts  and  those  of  the  temple. 

In  the  matter  of  penal  jurisdiction,  the  most  important  and  highest 
prerogative  of  the  Sanhedrin,  23  members,  called  Beth-Din  (House  of 
Justice),  were  authorized  to  act.  It  is  probable  that  on  the  night  when  Jesus 
was  arrested,  the  members  hurriedly  called  together  at  the  house  of  Annas, 
were  not  more  than  that  number.  This  Sanhedrin  of  Jerusalem  which  had 
such  large  powers  was  not  competent  to  decide  all  cases  or  to  try  all  crimes 
throughout  the  land.  Every  town,  even  every  village  had  a  lesser  Sanhedrin, 
either  of  23,  or  of  seven  members,  in  all  cases  connected  with  the  local 
synagogue.  Their  place  of  session  however  was  at  the  gate  of  the  town. 
The  hearing  was  always  public  and  the  judges  forbidden  to  receive  presents, 
but  the  equal  cause  of  justice  was  not  always  favored  by  the  elders  of  the 
people  in  Jesus'  time  any  more  than  in  our  own. 

These  then  were  the  dominant  factors  in  shaping  the  religious  life  of 
the  Hebrews  in  the  first  century.  The  Sadducees,  as  we  have  seen,  held  the 
official  positions  both  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  many  of  them 
were  very  rich.  The  Pharisees  and  Scribes  dominated  the  middle  class, 
while  the  Essenes  refused  to  take  seriously  any  of  the  relations  or  responsi- 
bilities of  human  society. 

It  remains  only  to  mention  the  great  mass  of  the  common  people  who 
were,  generally  speaking,  a  virile  and  virtue-loving  multitude  largely  under 
the  domination  of  the  Pharisees  but  by  no  means  dead  to  the  appeals  of 
either  a  true  patriotism  or  real  religion.  But  down  below  all  these  there 
was  a  large  class  of  men  who  had  lost  all  connection  with  religion  and  well 
ordered  humanity — "the  Publicans,  Harlots  and  sinners"— for  whose  souls 
no  man  much  cared.  To  the  Saviour  these  last  possessed  souls  in  reality 
less  leprous— spirits  less  blackened— hearts  less  hardened,  and  minds  less 
closed  to  His  Heaven-given  gospel  than  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  from 
them  He  called  forth  a  new  and  true  Israel,  and  in  close  co-operation  with 
the  truly  pious  remnant  of  the  land,  set  up  the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men. 


MEN  AND  EVENTS  IN  THE  TIME  OF  JESUS.  9 

And  thus  the  Sower  went  forth  to  sow  His  seed.  His  field  was  the 
world  of  human  need.  His  seed  was  the  word  of  heavenly  hope.  His  soil 
was  the  hearts  of  sinful  men.  Some  preempted  and  filled  with  the  over- 
growth of  selfishness  and  greed,  some  heaped  high  with  ridges  of  unyield- 
ing hardness  and  pride,  some  trampled  and  trodden  until  they  had  become  a 
mere  thoroughfare  for  the  conquests  of  Satan. 

But  others  prepared  and  responsive  to  Sower  and  seed  and  sun  and  des- 
tined to  yield  at  the  end  of  the  age,  some  thirty  fold  and  some  sixty  fold 
and  some  as  high  as  an  hundred  fold. 


*  THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GOSPEL  BY  JOHN. 

BY     REV.    AVII^BERT     W.    WHITE,    PH.     D., 

President  Bible  Teachers'  Training    School,  New  York. 

It  was  about  twelve  years  ago  that,  with  certain  misgivings  concerning 
the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  this  Fourth  Gospel,  I  went  off  into  the 
woods  on  the  beautiful  banks  of  Lake  Geneva,  Wisconsin,  with  my  New 
Testament,  determined  to  read  the  Gospel  by  John  through  to  discover  more 
clearly  what  my  attitude  towards  the  book  should  be.  I  had  studied  it 
considerably  before,  but  that  day  brought  to  me  a  new  vision  of  its  unity 
and  perfection. 

Turning  to  the  twentieth  chapter,  thirtieth  and  thirty-first  verses,  I  read 
the  statement  there  found  of  the  purpose  of  the  writer  in  producing  the 
book.  He  declares  it  to  have  been  that  the  reader  might  believe  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing,  one  might  have  life 
in  His  name.  As  I  read  those  verses  that  day,  the  thought  came  to  me  to 
begin  at  the  beginning  and  go  through  the  book  to  see  if  the  writer  made 
his  case.  Turning  to  the  first  chapter  I  read,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same 
was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things  were  made  through  Him  ;  and 
without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been  made  ".  Having  read 
thus  far,  and  being  in  a  somewhat  sceptical  mood  at  the  time,  I  said — 
aloud,  I  think, — "  John,  you  are  not  giving  me  any  reason  for  believing. 
You  are  making  statements  here  which  are  very  difficult  for  me  to  believe  ". 
After  a  moment's  pause  I  read  through  the  sixth  and  seventh  verses.  "  There 
came  a  man  sent  from  God,  whose  name  was  John.  The  same  came  for 
witness,  that  he  might  bear  witness  of  the  light,  that  all  might  believe 
through  him  ".  When  I  had  finished,  it  flashed  upon  me  that  John  was  going 
to  introduce  testimony,  and  I  saw  the  picture  of  a  court  with  judge,  witnesses, 
jury  and  lawyers.  I  recalled  a  particular  experience  of  my  early  boyhood 
when  I  heard  a  famous  lawyer  prosecuting  a  neighbor  who  had  been  arrested 
for  murder.  I  remembered  how  this  lawyer  stood  up  at  the  beginning  of 
the  trial  and  stated  to  the  court  and  to  the  jury  in  propositional  form  what 
he  intended  to  prove.  At  the  very  outset  he  put  the  entire  case  as  clearly 
and  as  fully  as  he  could  before  his  hearers  and  stated  that  he  proposed  to 
introduce  testimony  to  prove  all  these  points. 

While  I  had  recognized  that  the  words  "witness  "and  "believe"  are 
often  found  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  never  before  had  I  appreciated  their 
importance.  I  literally  ran  through  the  chapters  for  other  instances  of  the 
use  of  these  words  and  marvelled,  and  still  marvel,  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  whole  argument  hangs  upon  them,  and  at  the  wholeness  of  the  argu- 
ment which  hangs  upon  them.     The  word  "  witness "  is  found,  I  think, 


*  Delivered  at  the  First  Conference,  held  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  October  21,  1903. 

10 


THE  STUD  y  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  1 1 

forty-seven  times,  and  the  word  "believe"  about  one  hundred  times  in  this 
Gospel  by  John. 

At  this  juncture  I  recalled  an  experience  with  the  fifth  chapter  and 
thirty-ninth  verse  which  I  had  had  some  time  before  the  day  of  which  I 
write.  I  had  discovered  that  the  Revised  Version  of  5:39  reads,  "Ye 
search  the  Scriptures,  because  ye  think  that  in  them  ye  have  eternal  life  ", 
etc.,  whereas  the  Authorized  Version  reads,  "  Search  the  Scriptures  ".  I 
was  disappointed  when  I  first  read  the  Revised  Version  of  this  passage, 
because  I  had  often  used  the  other  in  my  public  addresses,  and  felt  that  it 
was  a  very  important  passage  in  emphasizing  the  duty  of  studying  the 
Bible.  I  determined,  however,  to  discover  if  the  revision  were  more  cor- 
rect. To  do  this,  I  first  examined  the  original  and  found  that  the  verbal 
form  is  exactly  the  same  for  "  Ye  search  "  as  for  "  Search  ".  What  was  I 
to  do  next.^  I  did  what  has  very  often  helped  me  understand  a  passage. 
I  examined  the  context.  The  result  of  this  was  that  I  discovered  our  Lord 
to  be  giving,  in  verses  thirty  to  thirty-nine,  a  summary  of  the  testimony 
which  had  been  offered  often  in  His  behalf  to  the  persons  whom  He 
was  addressing,  and  in  the  fortieth  verse  He  tells  them  what  the  effect  of 
this  testimony  had  been  upon  them.  He  said  to  them,  "  Ye  will  not  come 
to  Me  that  3^e  may  have  life  ".  In  the  thirty-first  verse  He  tells  them  that 
His  testimony  concerning  Himself  is  not  uncorroborated.  If  He  were  the 
only  witness  of  what  He  was  claiming  for  Himself,  He  could  not  expect 
them  to  believe.  In  saying  this  He  had  in  mind  the  Jewish  law  that  at  the 
mouth  of  at  least  two  witnesses  the  truth  should  be  established.  He 
appeals  to  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  (v.  33)  and  intimates  that  they 
were  not  consistent  in  not  accepting  what  John,  whom  they  regarded  as  a 
very  wonderful  man,  had  said  about  Him.  He  cites  also  His  works  (v.  36) 
f>.nd  the  Father  (v.  37)  as  witnesses,  and  finally  the  Scriptures,  which  the 
Jews  were  very  familiar  with.  Now,  if  you  will  think  a  moment,  you  will 
see  how  unlikely  it  w'ould  be  for  our  Lord  to  command  these  Jews,  who  had 
been  all  along  rejecting  Him,  and  whose  unbelief  in  verse  fort}^  he  declares 
to  be  wilful, — how  unlikely,  I  say,  that  our  Lord  should  command  them  to 
go  home  and  study  their  Bibles  even  more  about  the  Messiah.  It  was  not 
more  information  they  needed.  The  evidence  presented  to  them  was  ample. 
The  trouble  with  them  was  that  they  would  not  do  that  which  the  testimony 
challenged  them  to  do,  and  the  reason  for  this  was,  as  given  in  verse  forty- 
two,  "  Ye  have  not  the  love  of  God  in  yourselves  ".  The  trouble  was  not 
with  their  intellects,  but  with  their  feelings  and  their  wills.  An  additional 
reason  for  accepting  the  Revised  Version  I  found  in  the  use  of  the  w'ord 
"  life "  in  verses  thirty-nine  and  forty.  The  Jews  made  the  mistake  of 
thinking  that  in  the  Scriptures  they  had  life  and  they  would  not  come  to 
the  Saviour  in  order  that  they  might  have  life.  They  made  the  Bible  an  end 
in  itself  instead  of  a  means  to  an  end,  a  mistake  which  many  people 
are  making  in  the  present  day. 

This  passage  lying,  as  I  have  above  explained,  in  my  mind  became 
vividly  present  on  that  red  letter  day  of  which  I  am  speaking  and  served  as 
the  basis  of  the  outline  which   I  submit  below,  practically  all  of  which  was 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 


wrought  out  that  day  in  the  woods  and  has  been  followed  with  various 
classes  and  by  myself  many  times  since,  every  new  study  of  which  brings 
additional  light  on  this  marvelous  Fourth  Gospel. 


LIFE. 

Ye  may  have  life. 

Believing  ye  may  have  life  in  His  name. 

These  things  are  written,  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  believing  ye  may  have  life  in  His  name. 

I.— TESTIMONY. 

Testimony  of  John  the  Baptist. 
Testimony  of  Jesus'  Works. 
Testimony  of  the  Father. 
Testimony  of  the  Scripture. 
Testimony  of  Jesus  Himself. 
Testimony  of  Individuals. 
Testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

n— BELIEF. 

Instances  of  Belief. 
Instances  of  Unbelief. 
Development  of  Belief. 
Development  of  Unbelief. 
Secret  of  Belief. 
Explanations  of  Unbelief. 
Results  of  Belief. 
Results  of  Unbelief. 
Duty  of  Belief. 
Sin  of  Unbelief. 
Time  of  Belief. 
Object  of  Belief. 


Let  us  now  follow  briefly  the  outline  above. 

L — Testimony. 

I. — The  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  is  very  prominent  in  the  Gospel 
by  John.  It  is  twice  referred  to  even  in  the  Prologue  (John  i  :  1-18).  Why 
it  is  there  referred  to  is  a  question,  to  answer  which  some  students  reading 
this  article  may  profitably  spend  several  hours.  We  shall  not  dwell  upon  it 
here. 

Nothing  is  said  about  John  the  Baptist  in  the  Gospel  of  John  out  of  the 
first  and  third  chapters,  except  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  chapter,  where  we 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  13 

read  of  the  people  remarking  that  while  John  did  no  miracles,  everything 
that  he  said  about  Jesus  was  true.  The  prominence  of  the  testimony  of 
John  the  Baptist  at  the  beginning  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  accounted  for,  I 
think,  from  the  fact  that  he  was  the  one  who  pointed  the  writer  of  the 
Gospel  to  Jesus  Christ.  John  the  Evangelist  was  a  disciple  of  John  the 
Baptist.  More  time  than  is  usually  supposed  had  been  spent  by  John  the 
Baptist  in  instructing  his  disciples  about  the  Messiah  before  Jesus  came  to 
the  Jordan  to  be  baptized.  John  the  Evangelist  was  with  John  the  Baptist 
when  he  uttered  those  memorable  words  :  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  ",  and 
at  the  suggestion  of  John  the  Baptist,  John  the  Evangelist  went  after  Jesus 
and  never  came  back  to  his  old  teacher. 

The  Fourth  Gospel  is  in  a  real  sense  a  record  of  the  experience  of  the 
man  who  wrote  it.  I  most  firmly  believe  that  this  material  has  been  given 
by  the  inspiration  of  the  Most  High,  and  yet  I  believe  that  the  inspiration 
of  the  Most  High  did  not  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  free  action  of  the 
mind  of  John  the  Evangelist,  and  that  we  have  here  a  true  picture  of  how 
our  Lord  nnpressed  him  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  You  very  well 
know  how  natural  it  is  when  one  is  speaking  of  his  religious  experience  to 
mention  the  one  who  led  him  to  the  Saviour.  This  is  what  John  the  Evan- 
gelist here  does.  It  is  worth  while  noticing  as  we  pass  that  in  this  Fourth 
Gospel  John  the  Baptist  is  always  called  simply  John,  and  never  John  the 
Baptist,  as  is  the  case  for  the  most  part  in  the  other  three  Gospels.  This, 
to  me,  is  one  of  a  number  of  internal  evidences  of  the  genuineness  and 
authenticity  of  the  Gospel  by  John.  In  the  minds  of  the  other  writers  there 
were  two  Johns,  John  the  Evangelist  and  John  the  Baptist,  and  to  distin- 
guish them  they  wrote  John  the  Baptist  when  they  had  the  forerunner  of  our 
Lord  in  mind.  The  writer  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  being  John,  did  not  thus 
need  to  distinguish,  for  those  to  whom  he  wrote  knew  that  he  meant  John 
the  Baptist  when  he  merely  wrote  "  John  ". 

The  value  of  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  is  very  great  when  we 
consider  that  he  was  the  most  prominent  man  of  his  time  in  religious  mat- 
ters. Thousands  had  been  waiting  on  his  ministry  and  had  been  baptized 
by  him.  He  was  fearless,  courageous  and  truthful.  Many  thought  that 
he  was  one  of  the  prophets ;  some  even  wondered  if  he  was  not  the  Mes- 
siah ;  the  leaders  of  the  people  sent  a  deputation  to  inquire  who  he  was,  and 
among  the  questions  they  asked  was  this,  "Art  thou  the  Christ.-'  "  In  con- 
sideration of  these  things  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  is  to  be  given 
great  weight.  The  first  chapter  of  John  records  the  testimony  of  John  the 
Baptist  on  three  different  occasions.  The  first  was  when  the  Jews  sent  to 
him  priests  and  Levites  from  Jerusalem  to  ask  him,  "  Who  art  thou?  "  He 
assured  them  that  he  was  not  the  Christ.  With  equal  emphasis  he  denied 
that  he  was  Elijah  or  the  prophet.  When  they  urged  him  to  tell  them  who 
he  was,  reminding  him  that  they  had  been  ofhcially  sent  to  find  out,  he 
answered,  "  I  am  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  make  straight 
the  way  of  the  Lord  ".  When  they  inquired  his  reason  for  baptizing,  since 
he  was  not  the  Christ,  or  Elijah,  or  the  prophet,  he  declared  the  presence  of 
One  in  their  midst  coming  after  him  in  time,  but  before  him  in  character 


,4  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

and  mission,  tlie  latchet  of  whose  shoes  he  was  not  worthy  to  unloose.  The 
second  occasion  of  John's  testifying  was  on  the  moirow  after  the  deputation 
had  visited  him.  When  he  saw  Jesus  coming  he  exclaimed,  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  !  "  and  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  explain  to  his  hearers  how  he  knew  Jesus  to  be  the  Messiah.  In 
doing  this  he  related  how  the  One  who  had  sent  him  had  indicated  to  him 
definitely  (by  what  manner  we  know  not)  that  upon  whomsoever  he  should 
see  the  spirit  descending  and  abiding.  He  it  was  who  would  baptize  with 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Solemnly,  in  the  presence  of  the  multitudes,  he  pointed  to 
Jesus  and  said,  "  I  have  seen  and  borne  witness  that  this  is  the  Son  of 
God  ".  The  third  occasion  was  on  the  day  after  this,  when  John  and  two 
of  his  disciples  saw  Jesus  walking.  He  once  more  said  to  his  disciples, 
"  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !  " 

The  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  on  these  three  occasions  may  be 
summed  up  as  follows  : 

The  worthiest  is  not  worthy  to  unloose  His  shoes. 

He  is  the  Lamb  of  God ;  the  Son  of  God.  On  Him  abides  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

His  mission  is  to  take  away  the  sin  of  the  world  and  to  baptize  in  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

What  of  the  result  of  this  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  ?  Shall  we  ever 
be  able  to  estimate  it  ?  What  effect  did  his  words  have  upon  the  leaders  of 
the  people  when  the  deputation  reported  them  ?  How  many  people  who 
heard  John  the  next  day  recalled  his  words  later  and  entered  into  the  rest 
which  Jesus  freely  gives .''  We  are  unable  to  answer  these  questions,  but 
we  can  point  to  the  definite  results  of  John  the  Evangelist  following  Jesus, 
and  of  that  quiet  Andrew,  his  companion,  also  following  Jesus.  The  signifi- 
cance of  the  latter  fact  is  hardly  less  great  than  that  of  the  former  when 
one  recalls  that  Andrew  found  his  brother  Simon  Peter  and  brought  him 
to  Jesus.  Shall  we  pause  a  moment  and  think  of  the  vast  outcome  of  the 
testimony  of  John  the  Baptist  through  the  lives  of  these  two  of  the  four  men 
of  the  twelve  who  came  to  Jesus  that  day.  I  refer  to  John  the  Evangelist 
and  Peter  the  Apostle. 

A  word  only  about  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist,  as  found  in  the 
third  chapter  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  found  in  the  second  part  of  the  chapter, 
which  contains  two  notable  statements  revealing  to  us  much  of  the  char- 
acter of  John  the  Baptist.  One  of  these  expressions  is,  "  He  must  increase, 
but  I  must  decrease  "  (v.  30).  The  other  is,  "A  man  can  receive  nothing, 
except  it  have  been  given  him  from  Heaven  "  (v.  27).  A  few  years  ago  I 
had  no  particular  admiration  for  John  the  Baptist.  I  thought,  in  the  first 
place,  that  he  did  not  dress  well,  and  then  I  did  not  like  the  kind  of  food 
he  ate,  and  regarded  him  as  unnecessarily  severe.  But  the  more  I  study 
John  the  Baptist  and  the  more  comprehensive  my  view  of  the  Scripture 
becomes,  the  more  I  admire  him.  I  suggest  that  you  make  a  study  of  the 
forerunner  of  our  Lord.  Gather  all  the  material  in  the  Gospels  about  him 
and  make  an  analysis  of  what  he  said  about  Jesus  and  what  Jesus  said 
about  him,  and  if  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken  you  will  learn  to  love  him. 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  15 

Before  passing  from  the  testimony  of  John  the  Baptist,  recall  those 
words  of  our  Lord  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  John,  in  which  He 
refers  to  the  Baptist's  testimony.  "  Ye  have  sent  unto  John,  and  he  hath 
borne  witness  unto  the  truth  *  *  *  .  He  was  the  lamp  that  burneth 
and  shineth ;  and  ye  were  willing  to  rejoice  for  a  season  in  his  light.  But 
the  witness  which  1  have  is  greater  than  that  of  John  :  for  the  works  which 
the  Father  hath  given  Me  to  accomplish,  the  very  works  that  I  do,  bear 
witness  of  Me,  that  the  Father  hath  sent  Me  ". 

2. — Let  us  now  briefly  note  the  testimony  of  Jesus'  mighty  works  as 
presented  in  the  Gospel  by  John.  This  Fourth  Gospel  records  seven 
notable  miracles.     They  are  : 

The  changing  of  water  into  wine,  ch.  2. 
The  healing  of  the  nobleman's  son  at  a  distance,  ch.  4. 
The  healing  of  the  man  lame  38  years,  ch.  5. 

The  feeding  of  the  5,000  with  the  five  loaves  and  two  fishes,  ch.  6. 
Walking  on  the  sea,  ch.  6. 
Healing  a  man  born  blind,  ch.  9. 
Raising  Lazarus  from  the  dead,  ch.  11. 
Several  observations  may  be  made  about  these  miracles.     They  are  all 
found  in  the   first  part  of  the  Gospel.     A  noted  commentator  calls  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  John  "  the  watershed  of  the  book  ".     The 
verse  which  indicates  the  great  division  of  the  book  into  two  parts  is  12  :  33, 
at  the   middle,   together   with  what  follows   in   the   thirty-seventh   verse, 
"  These  things  spake  Jesus,  and  He  departed  and  hid  Himself  from  them. 
But  though  He  had  done  so  many  signs  before  them,  yet  they  believed  not 
on  Him  ". 

The  word  "  sign  ",  used  in  verse  thirty-seven  of  the  twelfth  chapter,  is 
found  seventeen  times  in  the  Gospel  by  John.  It  is  used  only  once  after 
this  verse  in  the  twelfth  chapter,  and  that  is  in  20  :  30-31,  the  key  passage  of 
the  book.  It  will  be  well  here  to  recall  what  that  passage  says,  as  it 
emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  signs  were  given  in  testimony.  "  Many  other 
signs  therefore  did  Jesiis  in  the  presence  of  the  disciples,  which  are  not 
written  in  this  book :  but  these  are  written,  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  believing  ye  may  have  life  in  His 
name".  Notice  that  the  antecedent  of  "these"  in  verse  thirty-one  is 
"  signs  ",  and  that  "  these  signs  are  written  that  ye  may  believe  ". 

The  word  "  sign  "  is  one  of  at  least  four  words,  translated  "  miracle  ". 
It  has  a  peculiar  meaning,  and  stands  for  that  kind  of  a  miracle  which  has 
significance  or  meaning  beyond  itself.  The  selection  of  miracles  which 
John  made  was  for  the  purpose  of  setting  forth  spiritual  truth.  Hence  he 
calls  them  semeia  (signs).  It  will  be  very  profitable  to  trace  here  the  fifteen 
uses  of  the  word  in  the  Gospel  up  to  the  twelfth  chapter  and  thirty-seventh 
verse.  In  2  :  1 1  we  read,  "  This  beginning  of  His  signs  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of 
Galilee,  and  manifested  His  glory;  and  His  disciples  believed  on  Him". 
Here  you  will  observe  the  effect  upon  the  disciples  of  the  sign.  In  2:18, 
"The  Jews  therefore  answered  and  said  unto  Him,  what  sign  showest 
Thou   unto  us,  seeing  that  Thou  doest  these   things?"     His  answer  was. 


1 6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

"  Destroy  this  temple  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up  ".  The  Jews  mis- 
understood His  reply,  but  the  writer  in  the  following  verses  explains  that 
after  He  rose  from  the  dead  His  disciples  believed,  for  they  understood 
that  He  referred  to  the  resurrection  of  His  body  from  the  dead.  The  word 
is  used  a  third  time  in  this  chapter  (2  :  23),  "  Many  believed  on  His  name, 
beholding  the  signs  which  He  did  ".  The  fourth  time  the  word  is  used  is  in 
3:2,  when  Nicodemus  is  reported  as  saying  "Thou  art  a  teacher  come 
from  God ;  for  no  one  can  do  these  signs  that  Thou  doest,  except  God  be 
with  him".  The  fifth  time  is  in  4:48,  "Jesus  therefore  said  unto  him, 
'  Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  in  no  wise  believe  '  ".  The  sixth 
time  is  in  4  :  54,  "  This  is  again  the  second  sign  that  Jesus  did,  having  come 
out  of  Judea  into  Galilee  ".  The  sixth  chapter  is  the  banner  chapter  for 
the  use  of  the  word.  It  is  used  four  times.  In  6  : 2  we  read,  "A  great  mul- 
titude followed  Him,  because  they  beheld  the  signs  which  He  did  on  them 
that  were  sick  ".  In  6:14  are  the  words,  "  When  therefore  the  people  saw 
the  sign  which  He  did,  they  said,  this  is  of  a  truth  the  prophet  that  cometh 
mto  the  world  ".  In  6  :  26,  Jesus  said  to  the  multitude  the  day  after  they 
had  been  fed,  "Ye  seek  me,  not  because  ye  saw  the  signs,  but  because  ye 
ate  of  the  loaves,  and  were  filled  ",  and  in  verse  thirty,  "  They  said  therefore 
unto  Him,  what  then  doest  Thou  for  a  tign,  that  we  may  see,  and  believe 
Thee  ?  what  workest  thou  ?  "  In  7  :  31,  the  multitude  who  believed  on  Him 
said,  "  When  the  Christ  shall  come,  will  He  do  more  signs  than  those  which 
this  Man  hath  done  ? "  Some,  in  commenting  upon  the  miracle  wrought 
upon  the  man  blind  from  his  birth  (9 :  16),  said,  "  How  can  a  man  which  is  a 
sinner  do  such  signs?"  Many  came  to  Jesus  and  testified  (10:41)  that 
while  John  did  no  sign,  everything  he  said  about  Jesus  was  true,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  believed  on  Him.  After  Jesus  had  raised  Lazarus  from  the 
dead,  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees  gathered  a  council  and  said,  "What 
do  we  ?  for  this  man  doeth  many  signs  "(11  •.\^).  A  multitude  went  out  to 
see  Jesus  and  Lazarus,  after  he  had  been  raised,  because  of  the  report  of 
those  who  had  been  with  Jesus  when  He  called  Lazarus  out  of  the  tomb 
(12:  18). 

3. — A  close  study  of  the  passages  cited  above,  in  the  light  of  the  whole 
plan  of  the  Gospel  by  John,  will  indicate  how  important  the  testimony  of 
Jesus'  mighty  works  was  regarded.  The  reader  is  advised  to  follow  up  the 
study.  Time  after  time  Jesus  appeals  to  His  mighty  works  as  evidence 
that  He  is  from  God.  The  fact  is,  that  he  joins  inseparably  the  next  line  of 
testimony,  namely,  the  testimony  of  the  Father,  with  that  of  His  mighty 
works  by  declaring  that  the  Father,  who  is  in  Him,  does  the  works.  He 
declares  that  His  works  would  not  be  accomplished  were  He  alone,  and 
that  His  ability  to  do  them  should  be  evidence  to  all  that  God  was  in  Him 
and  was  doing  His  work  through  Hirr.  In  like  manner  He,  before  going 
away  from  His  disciples,  intimated  to  them  that  should  the>  believe  on 
Him  the  works  that  He  did  they  would  do  also.  In  explaining  this,  He 
continued,  "  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  My  name,  that  will  I  do  ".  So  in  a 
very  real  sense  we  may  say  that  as  Jesus  doing  the  works  of  God,  both 
received  evidence  and  was  evidence  that  the  Father  was  in  Him  doing  His 


THE  SrrDV  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  17 

own  works,  so  the  Son  of  Ciod  will  dwell  in  us  who  believe  and  give  to  us 
and  through  us  indisputable  evidence  of  His  presence  by  doing  mighty 
works  by  us.     Thus  may  we  know  that  He  is  the  Son  of  God. 

4.-  What  shall  we  say  of  the  testimony  of  the  scriptures,  to  which  Jesus 
appeals?  He  evidently  has  in  mind  the  Old  Testament.  This  was  the 
Jewish  Bible  ;  it  was  His  own  Bible.  In  thus  appealing  the  case  beyond 
the  limit  of  contemporaneous  testimony,  He  appeals  to  voices  from  the 
past.  And  in  this  connection  we  should  note  that  He  appeals  also  in  the 
seventh  line  of  testimony,  namely,  that  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  an  authorita- 
tive voice  that  is  to  come  in  the  future.  He  thus  looks  backward  and  for- 
ward and  makes  present,  past  and  future  contribute  its  evidence  to  His 
august  claims.  W'e  shall  not  here  attempt  to  elaborate  the  testimony  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  behalf  of  Jesus.  It  is  very  strong  and  clear.  The  Old 
Testament  would  not  have  been  written  if  Jesus  had  not  been  coming. 
We  may  truthfully  say  that  the  New  Testament  would  not  have  been  writ- 
ten if  He  had  not  already  come.  He  is  the  central  figure  of  the  entire  Bible. 
To  Him  everj^  part  of  it  directly  or  indirectly  points. 

5. — The  testimony  of  Jesus  Himself,  as  recorded  in  this  Fourth  Gos- 
pel is  most  remarkable.  The  emphatic  form  of  "  I  ",  in  the  Greek,  is  used 
at  least  twenty-six  times  in  connection  with  our  Tord's  claim.  Here  are 
some  of  the  expressions  in  which  this  is  found :  "  I  am  He  "  (that  is,  the 
Messiah,),  4  :  26  ;  "  Before  Abraham  was  I  am  "  ;  "  I  am  the  Bread  of  Life  "  ; 
"  I  am  the  Living  Bread  "  ;  "I  am  the  Good  Shepherd  "  ;  "I  am  the  resur- 
rection and  the  life  " ;  "I  am  the  way,  and  the  truth  and  the  life  " ;  "I  am 
the  Light  of  the  World  "  ;  "I  am  the  Son  of  God  "  ;  "  I  am  the  door  ". 

Truly  this  Fourth  Gospel  is  a  strong  setting  forth  of  the  claims  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  God.  One  does  not  wonder  at  the  strenuous  attempts 
which  have  been  made  by  the  rejectors  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
prove  this  Gospel  unauthentic  and  non-genuine.  Thank  God  it  has  stood 
firm  against  all  attacks  and  is  better  accredited  to-day  than  it  has  ever  been. 

6. — Concerning  the  testimony  of  individuals  as  found  in  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel, suffer  this  single  remark.  This  testimony  is  introduced  in  remarkable 
subordination  to  the  general  plan  and  purpose  of  the  book  and  contributes 
marvelously  to  its  beauty,  unity  and  force.  The  student  may  prove  this  by 
examining  in  the  light  of  the  whole  book  the  testimony  of  individuals  from 
that  of  Nathaniel,  in  i  :  49,  to  that  of  Thomas,  in  20 :  28.  Notice  how 
strikingly  these  fit  in  with  the  declared  object  as  recorded  in  20:30,31. 
The  book  there  is  said  to  have  been  written  that  "  Ye  may  believe  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God".  Nathaniel's  testimony,  in  i  149,  is, 
"Thou  art  the  Son  of  God;  Thou  art  the  King  of  Israel",  which  latter 
expression  is  equivalent  to  saying,  "Thou  art  the  Christ".  Thomas' 
words  are,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God  ".  Will  the  reader  pause  at  this  point 
and  attempt  to  recall  individual  testimony  as  follows  :  Who  in  the  third 
chapter  testifies,  and  what  did  he  say?  Who  in  the  fourth,  and  what  was 
his  testimony?  Who  in  the  ninth,  and  what  the  testimony?  Who  in  the 
eleventh,  and  what  the  testimony? 


1 8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

(A  thorough  examination  of  the  Gospel  for  the  testimony  of  individuals 
is  earnestly  recommended.) 

7. — The  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  already  been  alluded  to.  Refer- 
ences in  the  Fourth  Gospel  to  this  testimony  are  found  chiefly  in  our  Lord's 
last  discourses.  There  more  than  once  He  refers  to  the  coming  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  "Whom,"  said  He,  "the  Father  wih  send  in  My  name;  He 
shall  bear  witness  of  Me  ".  The  words  of  our  Lord  concerning  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Holy  Spirit  were  fulfilled  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost  and  after- 
wards. Not  for  a  single  moment  since  that  notable  day  has  the  Holy 
Spirit  ceased  to  testify  in  the  hearts  of  believers  and  through  them  that 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God. 

At  the  head  of  the  second  part  of  the  outline  which  we  are  following  is 
the  word  "  Belief  ",  which,  where  it  exists,  is  induced  by  testimony. 

II— Belief. 

That  the  testimony  recorded  by  John  did  produce  belief  is  evident 
from  the  record.  The  Gospel  records  instances  of  individual  belief  as  well 
as  of  the  belief  of  companies.  Individuals,  such  as  Philip,  Nathaniel, 
Nicodemus,  the  woman  at  the  well,  and  others,  we  readily  recall.  Then 
there  are  such  expressions  as  "  Of  the  multitudes  many  believed  ".  It  is  not 
a  little  remarkable  to  notice  that  there  are  also  instances  of  unbelief 
recorded.  It  is  what  we  should  expect.  In  fact,  if  there  were  no  instances 
of  unbelief  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  we  would  be  disposed  to  suspect  them 
to  be  forged.  They  would  be  untrue  to  nature.  Nowhere  to-day,  not  even  in 
the  smallest  village  in  any  country,  does  everybody  believe.  The  candor  of 
the  writer  is  clearly  shown  in  his  recording  these  instances  of  unbelief. 
The  strength  of  his  position  is  greater  also  when  one  thinks  about  it,  for  he 
gives  satisfactory  explanations  of  the  instances  of  unbelief.  One  of  the 
most  interesting  lines  of  study  in  this  entire  outline  is  that  of  the  develop- 
ment of  belief  and  unbelief.  This  is  seen  both  in  individuals  and  in  the 
body  of  disciples  and  of  the  opposition.  The  marvelous  unity  of  this  Gos- 
pel grows  on  one  as  the  development  of  belief  and  unbelief  is  traced,  of 
belief  on  the  one  hand  in  the  disciples  as  they  came  better  to  know  their 
Lord ;  of  unbelief  on  the  other  in  the  Jews  as  they  more  and  more  clearly 
took  their  stand  against  Jesus. 

Take  one  or  two  instances  of  development  of  belief  in  individuals. 
That  of  the  woman  at  the  well  is  one.  At  first  her  estimate  of  Jesus  was 
expressed  in  the  words,  "Thou  being  a  Jew".  After  brief  conversation 
with  Him  she  remarked,  "I  perceive  that  Thou  art  a  prophet".  A  little 
later  she  suggested  to  her  fellow-townsmen  that  He  was  the  Christ.  The 
nobleman,  as  reported  near  the  end  of  the  fourth  chapter,  believed  the 
word  that  Jesus  said  when  He  told  him  on  the  way  some  distance  from  the 
house  that  his  son  lived.  After  his  return  and  discovery  that  his  son  was 
convalescent,  we  read  that  the  nobleman  believed  and  all  his  house.  The 
word  "believed"  in  this  last  instance  contained  much  more  than  it  did 
when  he  referred  to  the  road-side  experience.  So  it  should  be  with  every 
believer.     Every   new  day   should   fill  the  word  "believe"   more   full   of 


THE  STUD  Y  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  19 

meaning.  The  man  born  blind  is  another  illustration  of  rapid  development 
of  belief.  Reference  to  the  ninth  chapter  will  show  that  the  first  estimate 
by  the  blind  man  of  Jesus  was  that  He  was  a  man.  His  words  were,  "A 
man  that  is  called  Jesus  made  clay  and  told  me  to  go  to  the  pool  and 
wash".  After  he  had  heard  the  Pharisees  discussing  the  claims  of  Jesus 
and  His  work  and  then  was  asked  his  opinion,  he  said,  "  He  is  a  prophet". 
He  continued  to  think  as  he  listened  to  the  discussion,  and  when  occasion 
presented  itself  said,  "  If  this  man  were  not  from  CJod  He  could  do  noth- 
ing ".  After  they  had  cast  him  out  for  faithfulness  to  mental  and  spiritual 
processes,  Jesus  Himself  found  him  and  said,  "  Dost  thou  believe  on  the 
Son  of  God?"  He  answered,  "  Who  is  He  that  I  may  believe?"  Jesus 
said,  "  Thou  hast  both  seen  Him  and  He  speaketh  with  thee  ".  And  he  said, 
"  I  believe  ",  and  worshipped  Him.  Thus  the  blind  man  in  a  single  day 
covered  all  the  distance  in  the  development  of  belief,  from  "A  man  that  is 
called  Jesus  "  to  acceptance  of  this  same  man  and  worship  of  Him  as  the 
Son  of  God.  To  any  reader  whose  eyes  are  not  open  to  this  glorious  fact 
the  same  experience  may  come  if,  like  the  blind  man,  he  has  the  willingness 
and  humility  to  do  what  Jesus  tells  him  to  do  and  the  courage  to  testify  up 
to  the  measure  of  his  conviction  as  Jesus  more  and  more  reveals  Himself 
to  his  inner  consciousness. 

Of  the  secret  of  belief  I  shall  not  here  speak  particularly.  It  has  been 
already  in  one  way  or  another  pointed  out.  Explanations  of  unbelief  are 
fully  given  in  the  Gospel  by  John.  I  believe  there  is  not  a  single  case  of 
unbelief  in  the  world  today  of  which  the  Gospel  by  John  does  not  furnish 
an  explanation.  Let  us  note  two  of  these.  The  first  is  found  in  the  third 
chapter,  also  in  the  fifth.  It  is  a  bad  life.  "  Men  love  darkness  ",  says  our 
Lord,  "  rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  are  evil ;  neither  will  they 
come  to  the  light  lest  their  deeds  be  reproved  ".  The  same  is  involved  in 
John  5  :  42  and  44.  "  I  know  you,  that  ye  have  not  the  love  of  God  in  your- 
selves. How  can  ye  believe,  who  receive  glory  one  of  another  and  the 
glory  that  cometh  from  the  only  God  ye  seek  not?"  It  thus  appears  that 
in  the  case  of  some  people  it  is  absolutely  true  that  they  cannot  believe. 
They  cannot  believe  because  they  will  not  turn  from  their  evil  ways,  just  as 
a  man  cannot  see  the  north  when  his  face  is  set  toward  the  south  ;  just  as 
one  cannot  go  towards  the  east  while  he  is  progressing  westward. 

The  second  explanation  of  unbelief  is  given  in  5:40.  "Ye  will  not 
come  to  me  that  ye  may  have  life  ".  Here  our  Saviour  indicates  that  the  diffi- 
culty with  these  Jews  was  not  that  they  did  not  know  enough  ;  that  they  had 
not  evidence  sufficient,  but  that  they  would  not  act ;  that  they  refused  to  do 
what  it  was  clear  they  ought  to  do.  This  great  Physician  of  souls  here 
made  a  true  diagnosis.  He  located  the  difficulty  not  in  the  intellect,  but  in 
the  feelings  and  in  the  will.  He  said  to  them,  "Your  loves  are  wrong; 
the  love  of  God  is  not  in  you.  Your  wills  are  wrong ;  ye  will  not  come 
that  ye  may  have  life  ". 

The  results  of  belief  and  unbelief  as  indicated  in  the  Gospel  by  John 
are  the  same  as  those  manifesting  themselves  both  before  and  since  the 
time  of  our  Lord.     Take  any  cases  of  belief  in  the  Old  Testament  times, 


20  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

such  as  that  of  Moses,  or  David,  or  Daniel,  and  compare  what  resulted  in 
those  lives  with  what  the  Gospel  by  John  declares  to  be  the  results  of  belief 
in  God  and  you  will  be  struck  by  the  fact  that  the  results  are  the  same. 
Take  the  case  of  any  believer  to-day  and  you  will  find  the  joy  and  the  peace 
and  the  power  and  other  manifestations  of  belief  to  a  greater  or  less  degree 
present.  In  like  manner  we  might  speak  of  the  results  of  unbelief.  It 
thus  appears  that  this  Gospel  sets  forth  truth  for  all  time ;  that,  in  other 
words,  it  is  eternal. 

The  duty  of  belief  is  set  forth  on  every  page  of  this  Gospel.  "Whatso- 
ever He  saith  unto  you,  do  it ",  quietly  said  the  mother  of  Jesus  to  the 
servants  at  the  marriage  feast.  "  He  that  obeyeth  not  the  Son  shall  not 
see  life ",  is  the  solemn  declaration  of  Jesus  Himself.  The  evidences  of 
His  lordship  are  so  many  and  so  strong  that  the  duty  of  obeying  Him, 
which  is  what  belief  means,  becomes  very  apparent. 

One  of  the  most  striking  passages  setting  forth  the  time  of  belief  is  in 
the  Watershed  Chapter  (twelfth),  thirty-fifth  and  thirty-sixth  verses,  "  Walk 
in  the  light  while  ye  have  the  light  *  *  *  believe  on  the  light  that  ye 
may  become  sons  of  the  light  ". 

We  cannot  emphasize  too  much  the  fact  that  the  object  of  our  belief  is 
a  person,  even  Jesus  Christ  the  Son  of  God  Himself  and  not  a  proposition 
or  a  series  of  propositions.  Christianity  is  not  mere  acceptance  of  a  set  of 
doctrines  as  true.  It  is  personal  allegiance  and  warm,  loving  friendship. 
"  Ye  are  My  friends  ",  our  Saviour  says,  "  if  ye  do  the  things  which  I 
command  you.  No  longer  (that  is,  not  a  moment  after  you  do  the  things 
which  I  command  you),  do  I  call  you  servants.  For  the  servant  knoweth 
not  what  his  Lord  doeth.  But  I  have  called  you  friends,  for  all  things  that 
I  have  heard  from  My  Father  I  have  made  known  unto  you  ". 

Let  me  emphasize,  in  closing  this  outline  study,  the  distinction  between 
explanation  and  evidence.  Christianity  bases  its  claims  upon  the  latter  and 
not  upon  the  former,  and  this  is  scientific.  Explanations  come  after  evi- 
dence is  acted  upon.  There  are  many  students  to-day  who  think  that  they 
are  compromising  their  intellect  if  they  accept  as  true  that  which  they  are 
unable  to  understand  or  explain.  In  no  other  department  except  that  of 
religion,  however,  would  they  make  this  demand  or  have  this  suspicion. 
The  man  is  mistaken  when  he  says,  I  cannot  believe.  He  has  a  miscon- 
ception of  what  belief  is.  The  fact  is  that  belief  has  been  appointed  as  the 
means  by  which  salvation  is  procured,  among  other  reasons  because  it  is 
possible  for  everybody  to  believe ;  that  is,  to  act  on  evidence.  Jesus'  com- 
mand is,  "  Follow  Me".  This  anybody  can  do.  His  next  command  is 
"  Learn  of  Me".  This  anyone  will  do  if  he  will  obey  the  first  command, 
"  Follow  Me".  He  does  not  say,  "  Be  able  to  explain  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  Sonship".     He  does  say,  "  Do  what  I  command". 

An  exceptionally  intelligent  student  who  had  come  to  accept  the  general 
views  of  Darwin,  Huxley,  and  Spencer,  and  who  regarded  himself  as  an 
Agnostic,  one  day  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  fairly  examine  the 
strongest  presentation  of  Christian  truth.  He  was  advised  to  study  the 
Gospel  of    John.     He  read  it  through  from    beginning   to    end,  taking   it 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  21 

simply  as  a  book,  without  examination  of  outside  evidence  of  its  genuine- 
ness. When  he  read  it  through  he  said  :  "  The  one  of  whom  this  book  tells 
us  is  either  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  or  he  ought  to  be".  Because  of  what 
the  Book  told  him  of  Jesus  Christ  he  was  ready  to  heed  the  call  of  our  Lord, 
"  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me  and  drink". — "  He  that  followeth 
Me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness".  He  followed  the  Light  of  the  world  and 
found  Him  to  be  his  light  and  is  now  pointing  others  to  his  Saviour, 

The  above,  related  by  Dr.  Trumbull,  is  a  challenge  to  every  man  who 
says,  I  do  not  know.  For  my  part,  I  believe  that  the  same  prescription 
would  unfailingly  cure  every  Agnostic.  Let  him  with  the  following  prayer, 
thoughtfully  and  earnestly  read  the  Gospel  by  John.  "  Oh,  God,  if  there  be 
a  God,  and  if  Jesus  Christ  be  Thy  Son  and  my  Saviour,  give  me  evidence 
of  it  and  I  will  follow  Him  at  any  cost".  I  do  not  believe  that  any  man 
determined  to  know  and  do  the  truth  at  all  hazards  can  study  the  Gospel 
by  John  through  without  becoming  a  Christian. 


*  THE  FIRST  CHAPTER  OF  THE  GOSPEL  BY  JOHN. 

BY     REA^.    "W^II.BERT     W.    \\"MIXE,     PM.     X)., 
PRESIDENT    BIBLE   TEACHERS'    TRAINING    SCHOOL,    NEW    YORK. 

The  Gospel  by  John  has  a  prologue  and  an  epilogue.  The  epilogue 
constitutes  the  twenty-first  chapter.  The  prologue  includes  the  first  eighteen 
verses  of  the  first  chapter.  In  our  study  of  the  first  chapter  we  shall  con- 
sider it  in  three  parts.  We  shall  first  take  the  prologue,  next  the  testimony 
of  John  the  Baptist  as  found  in  verses  nineteen  to  forty-two,  and  lastly  we 
shall  make  a  brief  study  of  Philip  and  Nathanael. 

I.    THE  PROLOGUE.  --^ 

What  is  the  purpose  of  the  prologue  ?  One  great  scholar  much  quoted 
in  these  days  says,  that  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  Greek  readers 
of  Asia  Minor  to  Jewish  thought,  the  body  of  the  Gospel  being  Jewish. 
There  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  this,  and  yet  the  prologue  itself  must  be  recog- 
nized as  Jewish  in  thought.  The  outstanding  Greek  idea  which  John  takes 
up  in  the  prologue  and  into  which  he  pours  more  than  any  Greek  ever  dreamed 
of,  is  Logos.  In  brief,  we  may  say  that  the  purpose  of  the  prologue  is  to 
introduce.  It  summarizes  in  a  sense  the  entire  Gospel,  setting  forth  in 
miniature  all  that  follows.  There  appears  to  be  some  ground  for  the  opinion 
that  this  prelude  is  tripartate  and  in  widening  circles  presents  the  motifs  of 
the  drama  which  follows  and  which  describes  the  development  of  belief  and 
unbelief.  The  purpose  of  the  Gospel  is  to  prove  that  Jesus  is  the  incarnate 
Logos.  This  not  by  a  doctrinal  course  of  argument,  but  by  a  biography^ 
"  and  in  accordance  with  a  plan  which  involves  two  ideas,  testimony  and 
answering  belief."  It  requires  no  careful  study  of  these  verses  to  reveal  not 
only  the  claims  set  forth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  but  also  the  presence 
of  testimony  and  its  result. 

Of  the  plan  of  the  prologue  one  need  not  speak  at  length.  As  has  been 
intimated,  there  appears  to  be  a  series  of  ever  widening  movements,  precur- 
sors of  the  development  which  we  find  in  the  body  of  the  Gospel.  In  con- 
nection with  the  plan  of  the  prologue  it  might  be  well  to  dwell  a  moment  on 
the  manifest  progression  as  therein  found.  This  is  most  clearly  observed  in 
the  three  propositions  found  in  verses  one,  fourteen,  and  eighteen.  The 
Word  was  God  ;  the  Word  became  flesh ;  the  Word  reveals  the  Father.  It 
is  interesting  to  compare  the  movement  in  this  prologue  with  the  statement 
of  the  object  of  the  writing  of  John  found  in  20:  30,  31.  The  order  found 
there  is,  first,  Jesus;  second,  the  Christ;  third,  the  Son  of  God.     The  exact 


*This  is  the  substance  of   President  White's  evening   address,  delivered  at   the  First  Conference  on 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  held  October  21,  1903,  at  the  First  Baptist  Church. 


THE  FIRST  CHAPTER.  23 

reverse  of  this  order  appears  in  the  prologue.  Why?  Because  in  the 
prologue  the  claims  are  logical;  whereas,  in  the  twentieth  chapter  a  summary 
of  the  historical  movement  as  found  in  the  Gospel  is  j^iven.  In  the  first  part 
of  the  Gospel  the  disciples  are  represented  as  coming  in  contact  with  one 
Jesus,  who,  after  a  while  is  by  them  acknowledged  to  be  the  Christ,  and  at 
last  is  confessed  even  by  the  doubting  Thomas  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  In 
connection  with  those  three  propositions  found  in  verses  one,  fourteen  and 
eighteen,  may  I  give  the  following,  quoted  from  Gomorus,  who  represents 
Jesus  as  saying — 

"  I  am  what  I  was :  that  is  God. 

I  was  not  what  I  am :  that  is  man. 

I  am  now  both  God  and  man". 

n.    TESTIMONY  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST. 
[See  preceding  address.] 

m.    PHILIP  AND  NATHANAEL. 

In  these  two  men  we  have  completed  one  half  of  the  apostolic  college. 
Six  of  the  twelve  apostles  are  found  coming  to  Jesus  in  this  first  chapter  of 
John.  Jesus,  it  is  said,  found  Philip  (v.  43)  and  Philip  found  Nathanael 
(v.  54).  The  words  of  verse  forty-five  suggest  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of 
Philip  in  announcing  to  Nathanael  the  Messiah.  Think  of  him  as  seeing 
Nathanael  at  a  distance,  perhaps  on  the  other  side  of  a  wide  street,  or  on 
the  opposite  side  of  a  field,  and  running  towards  him  crying,  "  Oh,  Nathanael, 
we  have  found  Him  of  whom  Moses  and  the  Prophets  wrote,  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, the  Son  of  Joseph".  I  think  Philip  and  Nathanael  had  been  talking 
over  matters  relating  to  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  and  were  looking  for 
Him.  People  who  are  looking  are  those  who  usually  find.  The  answer  of 
Nathanael  put  in  the  form  of  a  question,  "  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of 
Nazareth? "  did  not  dampen  the  ardor  of  Philip.  He  was  unable  to  answer 
the  objection  which  Nathanael  raised,  but  he  was  sure  that  in  spite  of  the 
objection  he  had  found  the  Messiah.  He  did  the  wise  thing.  He  did  not 
argue,  but  said,  "  Come  and  see  for  yourself".  Nathanael's  response  to  this 
invitation  of  Philip  is  a  revelation  of  his  true  character.  He  was  an  honest, 
earnest  inquirer.  He  was  one  who  was  not  to  be  turned  aside  from  investi- 
gation by  even  a  serious  objection.  He  would  give  more  weight  to  the  testi- 
mony of  his  friend  than  to  a  theoretic  difficulty.  Would  that  there  were 
more  of  the  spirit  of  Nathanael  in  our  day. 

There  are  three  things  which  in  closing  I  wish  to  say  about  these  words 
"  Come  and  see".  The  first  is  that  Christianity  invites  investigation.  Not 
only  is  it  willing  to  have  the  most  thorough  examination  of  its  claims  made, 
but  it  greatly  desires  just  this  thing.  Its  policy  is  not  to  ignore  or  dodge 
any  difficulty.     On  its  forefront  are  written  the  words  "  Come  and  see." 

The  Bible  invites  investigation.  Throw  all  the  light  possible  on  its 
pages.     The  founder  of  Christianity  invites  investigation.      His  claims.  His 


24  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

character,  His  career,  all  about  Him  He  would  have  you  investigate  most 
carefully.  The  work  of  C'hristianity  in  the  world  invites  investigation.  It 
says,  let  on  all  the  light  possible. 

A  second  fact  about  Christianity  is  that  it  stimulates  investigation.  It 
presents  claims  which  make  us  think.  We  should  never  forget  that  the 
modern  university  with  all  that  it  involves  is  the  daughter  of  Christianity. 
May  the  daughter  never  deny  her  mother.  The  Bible  is  acknowledged  by 
the  most  eminent  thinkers  to  be  the  greatest  stimulus  to  human  thought. 
No  book  in  all  the  world's  history  has  done  for  the  human  intellect  in  the 
way  of  stimulus  what  the  Bible  has  done.  The  paradoxes  which  are  pre- 
sented in  the  Bible  are  calculated  to  stimulate  thought.  The  superficial 
thinker  rejects  the  Bible  as  untrue  because  it  has  what  he  calls  so  many  con- 
tradictions. These  are  only  apparent  and  dissolve  on  closer  investigation. 
An  illustration  of  this  we  find  in  this  question  of  Nathanaelto  Philip,"  Can  any 
good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?  "  The  prophets,  as  Nathanael  and  Philip 
knew,  had  declared  that  the  Messiah  should  come  from  Bethlehem  of  Judea. 
It  seemed  impossible  to  believe  that  what  Philip  said  was  true,  and  yet  a 
wider  synthesis  of  facts  was  all  that  was  needed  in  order  to  make  it  manifest 
that  both  were  true.  By  the  mere  claim  which  Philip  made  Nathanael  was 
stimulated  to  investigate. 

This  leads  us  to  the  third  and  last  remark  that  Christianity  stands  the 
test  of  investigation.  When  Nathanael  went  to  see  he  found  things  as  Philip 
had  represented  them.  Everyone  since  that  has  gone  to  see  in  the  same 
earnest  manner  has  had  the  same  experience.  Is  it  not  a  remarkable  fact 
that  no  one  who  has  thoroughly  investigated  Christianit)'  and  acted  upon  the 
command  of  our  Lord  "  Follow  Me"  has  returned  to  tell  the  world  that  there 
is  nothing  in  His  claims  ?  Is  there  anyone  here  who  does  not  know  that 
Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  ?  My  word  to  such  an  one  is  "  Come  and  see."  You 
are  challenged  to  do  so  by  the  very  claims  which  are  made  by  those  about 
you  whom  you  ought  to  trust.  Philip  had  never  deceived  Nathanael.  There 
are  friends  of  yours  who  have  always  told  you  the  truth.  Not  a  single  time 
have  they  led  you  astray.  They  with  all  the  enthusiasm  possessed  by  Philip 
on  this  memorable  day  when  he  called  to  Nathanael,  declare  that  they  have 
found  the  Messiah.  Will  you  not  prove  yourself  to  be  equally  as  earnest  and 
honest  as  Nathanael  and  come  and  see  even  though  great  difficulties 
present  themselves  to  you  ?  If  you  will  do  so,  you  will  know  that  He  is  what 
He  claims  to  be.  He  will  give  you  evidence  as  He  gave  Nathanael  that  He 
knows  you  through  and  through.  Will  you  please  notice  that  this  was  what 
convinced  Nathanael.  When  Jesus  saw  him  coming  He  said  to  him,  "Behold 
an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom  is  no  guile !  "  And  when  Nathanael  asked 
Him,  "  How  did  you  come  to  know  me?"  He  said,  "I  saw  thee  under  the 
fig  tree  before  Philip  called  thee".  He  was  doubtless  in  meditation  and 
prayer.  Probably  asking  God  to  indicate  to  him  the  Messiah  about  whom 
John  had  been  preaching  and  to  give  him  indisputable  evidence  when  he 
should  see  Him.  His  prayer  was  answered  in  an  unexpected  way.  At  once 
he  confessed,  "  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God ;  thou  art  King  of  Israel".  From 
that  day  forth  Nathanael  followed  Jesus  and  the  words  of  our  Lord  to  him 


THE  FIRST  CHAPTER.  25 

proved  true,  "Thou  shalt  see  greater  things  than  these".  Every  day  in  the 
true  Christian's  life  new  evidences  come  to  him  that  Jesus  is  what  lie  claims 
to  be.  Limitless  vistas  open  before  him  and  he  goes  on  a  way  of  ever  increas- 
ing wonder.  Will  not  every  hearer  accept  the  statement  at  the  beginning 
of  this  book,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God  and  act  upon  it.^  By  this 
means,  great  doubter  though  you  may  be,  you  will  inevitably  come  to  the 
place  as  Thomas  did  where  in  the  presence  of  indisputable  evidence,  you 
will  cry,  "My  Lord,  and  my  Cod". 


*  THE  PROLOGUE  OF  JOHN. 

by  rev.  ci^arii  s.  bkardsi^ee,  d.  d., 

Professor    of   Biblical    Dogmatics   and    Ethics,  Hartford   Theological 
Seminary,    Hartford,  Conn. 

There  are  many  points  of  entrance  into  a  study  of  this  opening  section 
of  John's  Gospel. 

One  broad  avenue  of  approach  to  its  meaning  is  a  careful  survey  of  its 
personnrl.  Here  stands  a  notable  company,  all  so  disposed  within  its  far- 
spreading  area  of  thought  that  each  one  finds  ample  room.  No  one  but 
will  well  repay  a  close  attention. 

Take  the  task  of  arranging  and  naming  and  estimating  the  impressive 
array :  God,  the  Father ;  the  Word,  the  Son,  the  Incarnate ;  Believers  and 
an  Unreceptive  World  ;  Moses  and  John  the  Baptist. 

From  among  these,  bring  forward  to  the  foreground  the  figure  undoubt- 
edly designed  by  the  author  to  stand  preeminent  within  the  group — Jesus 
Christ.  Notice  His  designation  :  He  is  the  Only- Begotten,  the  Word,  the 
Eternal,  the  Medium  of  Creation,  the  Light,  the  Life  of  all  the  World.  He 
has  a  world-embracing  mission,  is  dowered  with  a  glory  as  of  God,  bears 
within  His  life  and  being  a  full  and  blessed  freightage  of  grace  and  truth, 
can  secure  to  all  believers  the  proper  title  of  children  in  the  household  of 
God,  and  from  His  everlasting  home  in  the  Father's  bosom  can  bring  forth 
abounding  revelations  of  the  being  of  the  Infinite  and  Unseen.  All  this 
opens  before  one's  eye  as  he  heeds  the  persons  filing  into  view  in  this  brief 
paragraph. 

Another  open  highway  into  a  study  of  the  prologue  is  its  action.  Here 
is  a  wonderful  drama,  with  mighty  actors,  engaged  in  a  stupendous  enter- 
prise. There  are  impressive  hints  of  an  eternal  companionship  of  Father 
and  Son ;  of  the  outgoings  of  an  infinite  energy  and  skill  in  the  creation  of 
all  existing  things ;  of  an  awful  and  far-spread  alienation  between  persons 
who  should  have  remained  genially  at  one  ;  of  a  gracious,  world-encircling 
personal  illumination  ;  of  the  strangely  variant  response  of  unbelievers  and 
believers ;  of  an  amazing  birth  from  God  through  Christ  of  all  receptive 
hearts  into  filial  kinship  with  God ;  and  of  clusters  of  events  fit  to  mark 
world-eras  in  the  ministries  of  Moses  and  John.  Surely  here  are  move- 
ments of  the  most  vital  and  majestic  type. 

But,  among  all  these  living  scenes  one  is  central :  the  Word  becoming 
Flesh.  Here  is  mystery  beyond  all  doubt.  But  here  is  verity  beyond 
denial.  And  here  pure  glory  is  radiant.  He  who  abides  eternally  with 
God,  He  who  brings  a  universe  into  ordered  life.  He  who  brings  life  to  all 
who  see,  He,  the  Only-Begotten,  becomes  Flesh  that  there  may  come  to 


*  Summary  of  address  delivered  at  the   First  Conference,  held  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  October 
21,  1903. 

26 


THE  rROLOGUE.  27 

man  from  the  eternal  source  of  Truth  all  the  fullness  of  intinite  Grace.  Here 
is  a  transaction  fit  to  summon  every  seeing  eye  in  all  the  universe  to  give 
thoughtful,  reverent  heed. 

And  other  ways  of  easy  entrance  to  this  gateway  of  the  Gospel  of  John 
lie  in  easy  view.     Let  heedful  souls  find  and  map  out  every  one. 

Once  a  man  has  broken  into  the  rich  interior  of  this  short  paragraph, 
he  is  impressed  with  its  arrangement  of  material  in  pairs .  Word  and  God, 
Son  and  Father,  Word  and  Flesh,  Light  and  Darkness,  Being  and  Becom- 
ing, Faith  and  Birth,  Repentance  and  Belief,  Grace  and  Truth.  Here  are 
set  together  infinite  contradictions,  contrasts,  balancings,  complements, 
harmonies,  fellowships. 

Tremendous  questions  surge  into  a  student's  mind.  How  are  the 
Word  and  God  related  inherently  and  eternally?  What  deeps  lie  in  Son- 
ship  and  Fatherhood  in  Deity  ?  How  do  Word  and  God  cooperate  in  crea- 
tion ?  What,  quite  precisely,  are  the  author's  views  of  Darkness?  How  do 
Faith  in  the  believer  and  Birth  from  God  consort,  when  people  "  become  " 
sons  of  God?  Exactly  how  does  "witness  bearing"  corroborate  "light"? 
How  do  Grace  and  Truth  differ  ?  and  how  do  they  combine  in  "  Glory  "  ? 
Here  are  near  and  obvious  queries,  and  any  one  of  them  may  sober  anyone. 

And  yet  all  these  astounding  coefficients  lie  together  in  this  prologue  in 
easy  fellowship,  without  any  sign  of  discord  or  uneasiness. 

Indeed,  they  truly  unify.  Though  the  colors  vary  strikingly,  they  evi- 
dently and  beautifully  blend.  After  all,  the  theme  is  one,  the  aim  is  one, 
the  effect  is  one.  Here  is  a  characteristic  marvel,  and  herein  the  prologue 
is  like  the  Gospel  as  a  whole.  It  is  a  living  unity.  Gospel  and  prologue 
are  fluid,  not  solid.  All  its  elements  interplay.  The  whole  of  it  is  every- 
where. The  pressure  of  the  entire  paragraph  pulses  and  surges  in  every 
phrase.  To  state  the  same  truth  in  another  way,  its  structure  is  germinal. 
Each  sentence  is  like  a  living  cell ;  it  alone  is  able  to  produce  the  whole. 
The  life  of  all  is  in  each  part.  Or  once  again,  it  is  like  a  diamond  with  many 
facets,  through  each  of  which  streams  all  the  splendor  in  all  the  gem.  So 
wonderful  is  its  unity.  Prologue  and  Gospel  are  pan-centric.  The  center 
of  gravity  is  everywhere.  It  is  all  central.  Every  sentence  is  a  radius. 
Every  affirmation  is  an  orb.  Its  aspects  vary  as  might  vary  the  different 
surfaces  of  a  cube,  when  overlaid  with  varying  hues.  Every  surface  pre- 
sents the  total  cube.  Such  is  the  composition  of  this  section.  All  its 
factors  fuse. 

And  they  merge  in  the  Incarnate  Word.  Here  is  all  the  manifoldness, 
all  the  abundance,  all  the  unity,  all  the  simplicity  that  flash  upon  the  open 
eye  at  this  magnetic  gatew-ay  to  the  (jospel  of  John.  In  Him  is  Eternal 
Deity,  creative  energy,  effulgent  light,  primal  lordship,  all  radiance  of  glory, 
full  tides  of  Grace  and  Truth.  All  verity  and  harmony  reside  in  Him.  In 
Him,  as  set  forth  here,  all  the  deep,  disturbing  queryings,  which  the  various 
factors  of  the  prologue  instigate,  become  tranquilized. 

The  "  World  "  is  His.  He  dominates  its  "  Darkness  ".  He  radiates  its 
"Light".  In  His  full  blendings  of  full  Grace  and  Truth  full  "Glory" 
stands  revealed. 


2,s  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Here  is  the  central  reality  and  the  consummate  wonder  of  this  prologue. 
Here  play  all  the  lasting  energies  of  this  world's  life.  And  here  those  forces 
find  their  rest.     How  is  this  so  swiftly  and  deftly  and  simply  achieved  ? 

This  is  the  task  of  any  earnest  and  penetrating  student  of  this  introduc- 
tory masterpiece  in  the  matchless  Gospel  of  John.  But  this  is  no  task  for  a 
novice,  or  a  man  in  any  impatient  haste.  It  is  a  task  for  a  master  and  for  a 
life-time. 

One  broad  assertion  may  be  made  at  the  start.  He  who  fathoms  this 
prologue  will  be  a  man  of  one  sole  aim.  He  will  be  seeking  with  all  his 
eyes  to  find  out  its  conception  of  personality. 

Within  this  simple  thought  range  all  the  areas  and  slumber  all  the 
deeps  which  this  paragraph  contains.  The  key  to  unlock  all  the  mystery  of 
Word  and  God,  of  Father  and  Son,  of  Grace  and  Truth,  of  Word  and  Flesh, 
of  Faith  and  Birth,  of  Darkness  and  Light,  and  of  the  infinite  act  of  creation 
lies  fully  fitted  in  just  one  deep,  true  glance  into  the  mighty  energies  and 
awful  antagonisms  and  blissful  fellowships  that  lie  inherent  in  the  qualities 
and  capacities  of  beings  who  are  persons,  /.  ^.,  beings  who  are  responsible 
and  free.  The  forces  that  play  across  the  face  of  this  prologue  are  persons. 
They  are  beings  who  know  and  choose  and  judge-  They  can  discern  and 
approve  and  desire.  They  can  also  detect  and  decline.  They  are  inher- 
ently and  freely  independent.  And  they  are  inherently  and  freely  inter- 
locked. They  stand  in  individual  integrity.  And  they  stand  in  social 
fraternity.  They  may  be  alienated.  They  may  be  reconciled.  They  may 
be  deadened.  They  may  be  quickened.  They  may  freely  stray  in  dark- 
ness. And  they  may  freely  range  in  light.  They  may  clarify,  or  they  may 
eclipse  their  intelligence.  They  may  sully  or  they  may  purify  their  joy. 
They  are  persons. 

Among  them  all  stands,  at  the  focus  of  this  paragraph,  and  at  the  focus 
of  the  history  of  the  world,  the  Incarnate  Word,  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God. 
Now  mark  what  is  said  of  Him. 

He  is  the  Word.  Heed  that.  He  became  Flesh.  Ponder  here.  He 
dwelt  among  us.  Peer  into  that.  He  was  radiant  with  Glory.  If  you 
really  have  at  your  command  a  true  intelligence,  use  it  here.  This  Glory 
was  as  of  the  Only- Begotten.  Think  what  this  does  verily  mean.  The 
Only-Begotten  of  the  Father.  How  far  do  you  really  see  into  the  essential 
meaning  of  this  word  in  this  place  ?  Full  of  Grace  and  Truth.  Now  you 
have  struck  the  center.  Do  you  know  it  ?  This  (the  blended  Grace  and 
Truth)  is  the  Glory.  This  beseems  the  "Father".  This  is  what  radiates 
from  the  "  Only- Begotten".  This  streams  from  the  "Flesh".  This  hails 
from  the  "  Word  ".  And  this  is  the  Word  who  was  "  with  God  ",  who  "  was 
God  ",  through  whom  everything  "  came  into  being  ".  This  Word  was  the 
"Life"  which  was  the  "Light",  which  irradiated  all  mankind.  It  was 
He  in  whom  certain  men  "believed".  It  was  through  Him  that  they 
became  "  Sons  of  God ".  It  was  He  whom  divers  other  men  did  not 
"receive".  It  is  He  who  "is  in  the  Father's  bosom".  It  is  He  who 
''  declares  "  the  "  invisible  "  God.     And  He  is  Jesus  Christ. 


THE  PROLOGUE.  29 

Now  here  are  overwhelming  affirmations.  But  they  are  splendidly 
simple.  They  all  center  in  that  blending  of  Grace  and  Truth.  And  the 
blending  of  the  unmixed  energies  of  eternal  Grace  and  Truth  form  the  deep 
and  priceless  verity,  the  final  and  full  quintescence  of  deathless,  divine 
personality.  This  is  the  "  Glory  "  of  Christ.  This  is  the  "  Word  ".  In 
this  free  range  are  all  the  vitality  and  verity  and  joy  of  the  copartnership 
of  Word  and  God,  of  Father  and  Son.  It  is  an  infinite  interplay  of  Truth 
and  Grace. 

Herein  each  is  conscious  of  the  solid  and  unvarying  reality  of  His  own 
being  in  the  exhaustless  upspringing  of  His  self  respect,  while  also  equally 
conscious  of  a  full  and  joyful  outflow  toward  the  other  in  the  exhaustless 
tide  of  His  self-devotion.  Truth,  the  blessed  consciousness  of  the  absolute 
reality  of  Himself ;  Grace,  the  blessed,  free  outpouring  toward  another— 
here  is  all  the  "  Glory  "  of  God,  all  the  eternal  companionship  of  Father 
and  Son.  This  in  the  unmixed  purity  of  the  spirit  life,  and  in  the  unlimited 
fullness  of  the  Transcendent  One  is  personality  in  blessed  archetype.  It  is 
the  unencumbered,  unhindered,  untiring  and  unmeasured  interplay  of  Grace 
and  Truth. 

The  revelation  of  this  is  "Light".  The  glad  welcome  of  this  is 
"Belief".  The  potent  engendering  of  this  by  God  through  Christ  is  the 
first  inbreathing  of  sonship.  And  herein  rests  all  basis  for  pure,  abid- 
ing fellowship,  whether  with  brother  man,  or  Christ,  or  the  Infinite  God- 
Here  is  personality  in  all  its  immortal  nature,  and  ground,  and  range,  and 
blessedness.  Here  are  the  deeps  of  the  fellowship  in  Deity.  Here  are  the 
deeps  of  the  comradeship  of  Word  and  Flesh.  Here  is  the  definition  of 
Light.  This  is  Life.  Here  is  the  ambient  tide  in  which  rests  so  peacefully 
the  divinely  fashioned  keel  of  human  faith.  And  here,  as  with  the  Only- 
Begotten  in  the  Father's  bosom,  is  the  ultimate,  and  complete,  and  quiet, 
and  joyful  haven  of  human  rest.  So  deep,  and  strong,  and  clear  is  the  infin- 
ite love  that  offers  to  our  wondering  eye  its  deeps  in  the  prologue  to  the 
Gospel  of  John. 


*  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL. 

(St.  John  i  :  19-37.) 

j3y  rk^'.   avj^i.   arnoli:)  stevens,  d.  d.,  ll.  d. 

Professor   of  New   Testament    Interpretation    in   Rochester   Theological 
Seminary,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

"There  came  a  man,  sent  from  God,  whose  name  was  John".  Thus 
the  history  of  Christianity,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  Israel,  begins — at 
least  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  The  synoptic  narrative  takes  the  same  point  of 
departure.  "The  beginning  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ",  says  Mark — 
"  John  the  Baptizer  came  in  the  wilderness,  preaching  the  baptism  of  repent- 
ance unto  remission  of  sins  ".  It  was  in  the  person  of  John  the  Baptist  that 
Christianity  emerged  into  history,  and  by  him  the  foundations  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  were  begun.  The  author  of  Ecce  Homo  struck  a  true  note  in 
his  opening  sentence :  "  The  Christian  Church  sprang  from  a  movement 
that  was  not  begun  by  Christ ". 

The  student  of  the  Gospel  narrative,  his  eye  fixed  upon  one  central 
figure,  may  easily  overlook  the  large  significance  of  the  person  and  work  of 
John.  One  indication  of  this  significance  is  the  relative  space  given  to  this 
subject.  Take  the  150  sections  into  which  the  four-fold  Gospel  has  been 
divided  for  the  purpose  of  historical  interpretation,  23  of  them  treat  of,  or 
have  reference  to  John.  Again,  in  the  book  of  Acts,  in  at  least  six  passages 
his  ministry  or  his  teaching  comes  distinctly  into  view.  He  is  especially 
prominent  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  In  that  profoundest  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment books  there  is  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  fact  that  this  man  and  his 
message  must  be  studied  if  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ  and  the  begin- 
nings of  Christianity  are  to  be  understood. 

"  Sent  from  God  ",  says  the  record.  Every  man  who  fills  a  place  in 
history  and  renders  distinguished  service  to  his  generation  is  in  a  certain 
true  sense  "sent  of  God  ",  but  the  word  here  means  more.  The  reference 
is  not  to  the  fact  that  John  belonged  to  the  priesthood,  and  had  the  conse- 
crated blood  of  Aaron  in  his  veins.  Rather  that  he  was  sent  as  a  prophet 
is  sent,  bearing  a  message  supernaturally  given,  and  thus  invested  with  an 
authority  which  no  personal  endowment,  no  sacred  lineage,  no  human  insti- 
tution, ecclesiastical  or  civil,  could  confer.  Such  was  the  claim  that  John 
put  forward  for  himself,  and  such  the  claim  that  Christ  afterwards  was  dis- 
tinctly understood  to  put  forward  for  him.  The  Jewish  hierarchy  recog- 
nized what  that  claim  to  prophetic  inspiration  and  authority  meant,  and  on 
that  issue  they  deliberately  and  finally  rejected  him. 

Once  for  all  let  us  discard  that  theory  which  has  contributed  in  so 
many  ways  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  origin  of  Christianity,  namely,  that 
John  belonged  to  the  old  dispensation  rather  than  the  new.     Dr.  Schaff 


*  Delivered  at  the  First  Conference,  held  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  October  21,  1903. 

30 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL.  31 

styles  him  "  the  representative  of  the  ancient  preparatory  economy  ",  and  in 
this  sense  the  author  of  a  recent  hand-book  on  John  the  Baptist  chooses 
as  its  title,  "  The  Last  of  the  Prophets  ".  This  is  to  forget  that  the  ministry 
of  John,  lasting,  we  may  believe,  nearly  three  years,  was  in  large  part  con- 
temporaneous witli  that  of  Jesus, — that  for  nearly  a  year,  perhaps  more, 
they  were  actively  engaged  in  teaching  at  no  great  distance  from  each 
other ;  that  both  John  and  Jesus  baptized,  and  both  preached  essentially 
the  same  gospel — that  John,  as  truly  as  Peter,  or  Andrew,  or  John  the 
Apostle,  was  a  disciple  and  a  servant  of  Christ.  We  are  told,  by  way  of 
objection,  that  John  was  not  one  of  the  members  of  the  kingdom,  that  Christ 
Himself  expressly  excludes  him  from  that  number.  But  it  was  because  the 
kingdom  had  not  come.  John  did  not  live  to  see  the  ascension,  and  the 
advent  of  the  Spirit ;  he  could  not  be  included  among  those  who  should  not 
taste  of  death  till  they  should  see  the  kingdom  of  God  (Lk.  9  :  27) ;  but  no 
one  can  accept  the  historicity  of  the  Fourth  (lospel  and  consistently  deny 
to  John  a  place  among  the  ministers  of  the  new  covenant.  Luke  also 
expressly  says,  "he  preached  the  gospel  unto  the  people"  (3:1.^).  His 
proper  place  is  in  that  new  order  of  the  world  that  we  call  Christian. 

Who  may  fitly  describe  this  great  man— great  in  every  true,  high  sense  ? 
His  picture — the  picture  of  the  external  man — is  familiar,  but  the  Gospels 
give  us  no  biography,  no  account  of  his  education,  of  his  life  till  manhood, 
alternating  between  the  temple  and  the  wilderness.  Only  a  few  of  his  say- 
ings are  recorded  ;  he  transmitted  no  system  of  doctrine ;  the  society  which 
he  formed  was  not  finally  to  bear  his  name  or  acknowledge  his  leadership. 
Still  there  is  no  mistaking  the  mental  and  moral  stature  of  this  sublime 
man,  who  has  not  yet  come  to  his  own  in  history,  to  whom  even  Keim's 
splendid  tribute  has  done  only  partial  justice. 

His  greatness  grows  with  time.  As  Edersheim  says  :  "  It  is  not  easy  to 
speak  of  him  in  moderate  language.  Above  all,  it  is  his  generosity  and  his 
unselfishness  and  absolute  self-abnegation  which  impresses  us.  In  a  gen- 
eration pre-eminently  self-righteous,  vain-glorious  and  self-seeking,  when 
even  on  the  last  journey  to  Jerusalem  the  two  disciples  nearest  to  Christ 
could  only  think  of  pre-eminence  of  place  in  the  kingdom,  and  when  in  the 
near  prospect  of  suffering  a  Peter  could  ask  the  Master,  '  What  shall  we 
have,  ? '  when  even  at  the  last  meal  the  disciples  marred  the  solemn  music 
of  this  farewell  by  the  discord  of  their  wrangle  about  the  order  of  rank, 
*  *  *  the  Baptist  stands  alone  in  his  life  and  in  his  death — absolutely 
self-forgetful". 

He  had,  what  is  so  rarely  found,  self-knowledge,  a  thorough  understand- 
ing of  himself  and  his  vocation.  And  this  suggests  one  of  the  lessons  to  be 
learned  from  his  life.  He  was  conscious  of  a  prophetic  task,  and  had  pon- 
dered Old  Testament  prophecy  until  its  thought  and  spirit  had  passed  into 
his  very  life.  He  perceived  that  the  coming  of  the  Messiah  for  the  deliv- 
erance of  Israel  was  conditioned,  that  it  depended  in  part  upon  the  pre- 
paration to  receive  Him  which  the  Israelite  community  itself  should  make. 
The  theocracy  must  make  ready  for  the  coming  of  its  King ;  there  must  be 
a  spiritual  preparation,  a  revival  of  faith  and  obedience.     "  Come  out  from 


32  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

among  them  and  be  ye  separate".  Now  John,  as  Ewald  has  said,  "recog- 
nized the  Divine  call  as  directed  in  the  first  instance  to  himself  ".  He  was 
the  nearest  person  he  could  speak  to.  Not  waiting  for  the  nation,  not  even 
waiting  for  the  appearance  of  the  Elijah  who  was  to  precede  the  Messiah, 
he  bowed  his  own  soul  before  God,  and  there  made  ready  for  the  King. 
Not  dreaming  that  he  himself  was  that  Elijah,  he  passed  into  the  wilder- 
ness and  became  Elijah — the  Elijah  that  was  to  come.  Thus  is  it,  or  may  it 
be  with  us  all.     It  is  our  ideals  that  shape  our  destiny, 

"  The  thing  we  long  for,  that  we  are." 

The  power  with  which  he  brought  his  message  to  bear  upon  his  gener- 
ation may  be  measured  by  its  effect.  The  trumpet  blast  of  his  voice  shook 
the  land.  It  awoke  a  reformation,  a  revival  of  spiritual  life.  Herod  Anti- 
pas,  as  well  as  the  rulers  at  Jerusalem,  feared  him.  For,  as  Josephus 
relates,  "the  people  were  wrought  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  excitement  by 
his  words  ",  and  "  seemed  ready  to  do  anything  that  he  might  advise  ". 
Even  during  his  imprisonment  he  had  intercourse  with  his  followers.  For 
not  less  than  three  years,  we  suppose,  perhaps  longer,  he  preached,  taught, 
gathered  a  body  of  disciples,  until  his  mission  was  accomplished,  and  he 
had,  in  the  phrase  of  scripture,  made  ready  for  the  Lord  "a  prepared 
people  ". 

That  John  preached  a  gospel  we  have  already  shown.     We  are  now 
to  inquire,  what  was  that  gospel  ?     The  answer  will  be  three-fold  : 
I.     He  preached  a  Christ — a  personal  Lord  and  Savior. 
II.     He  preached  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
III.     He  preached  a  Gospel  of  Righteousness. 

I.  John  preached  a  Christ,  a  personal  Lord  and  Savior.  The  modern 
reader  of  the  Gospels  takes  this  as  a  matter  of  course,  having  in  mind  that 
the  whole  Jewish  people  were  in  an  attitude  of  expectation.  The  literature 
of  that  age  enables  us  measurably  to  appreciate  the  tremendous  import  of 
the  Messianic  hope — the  courage,  the  recuperative  energy,  the  idealized 
imperialism  that  were  born  of  it.  But  that  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
designate  the  Messianic  hope  was  the  expectation  of  a  kingdom  rather  than 
of  a  king.  The  kingdom  was  to  be  restored  to  Israel.  The  Jew  was  to  be 
ruler  of  the  world.  A  monarchy,  a  throne,  a  king  of  the  Davidic  line,  these 
were  matters  of  course,  but  it  was  the  kingdom  that  loomed  large  in  popu- 
lar thought.  In  the  compilation  known  as  the  "  Sibylline  Oracles  "  there 
are  certain  portions  manifestly  of  Jewish  origin,  w^hich  are  on  good  grounds 
considered  at  least  a  century  older  than  John  the  Baptist.  In  their  delinea- 
tion of  the  future  power  and  glory  of  Israel,  they  scarcely  more  than  allude 
to  the  Messiah,  the  King  who  is  to  inaugurate  the  new  era.  The  poet's  eye 
is  not  fixed  upon  a  person.  In  the  Book  of  Enoch,  it  is  true,  and  in  the 
Psalms  of  Solomon,  that  personal  figure  is  more  prominent.  But  for  the 
most  part  the  watchword  of  the  Pharisees  was  not  the  Messiah,  it  was  Mal- 
kuth.  the  kingdom,  and  this  was  equally  the  case  with  the  people  at  large. 

John  preached  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  the  distinctive  feature  of  his 
message  was  the  teaching  concerning  a  personal  King  and  Savior.     He  not 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL.  33 

only  kindled  anew  the  national  hope,  he  interpreted  it  and  spiritualized  it. 
He  turned  all  eyes  upon  the  Coming  One.  This  supreme  thought  of  a 
unique  person  as  the  realization  in  Himself  of  the  nation's  long  deferred 
hope,  was  not  new;  it  was  at  least  as  old  as  Isaiah,  but  it  was  for  that  age 
vague  and  obscure,  and  practically  of  slight  import.  John  revived  it. 
"What  you  have  to  do  with  ",  he  warned  rulers  and  people  alike,  "is  not 
the  matter  of  a  new  polity,  a  reconstructed  civic  and  social  order ;  the  King 
is  coming,  a  King  of  absolute  righteousness,  with  power  to  destroy  as  well 
as  to  save.     Your  reckoning  is  not  with  the  kingdom,  but  with  Him." 

Of  the  genesis  of  this  phase  of  his  gospel  we  are  not  told,  nor  when  it 
was  that  he  first  accepted  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  his  Lord  and  Savior.  No 
record  remains  of  the  day  when  for  the  first  time  he  believed  on  the  Nazar- 
ene  as  the  Lord's  Anointed,  whose  way  he  was  commissioned  to  prepare. 
But  surely  that  was  one  of  the  decisive  days  of  history  when  the  Judean 
prophet  beheld  in  Jesus  the  Divine  One,  and  had  vision,  however  dim,  of 
the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  How  John  first  discovered  Him  in 
His  true  character— whether  it  was  discovery,  or  by  what  is  in  scripture 
termed  revelation,  we  are  not  called  upon  to  decide. 

"  Who  shall  draw  the  mystic  line, 
Which  is  human,  which  divine  ?  " 

He  was  at  all  events  distinctly  enabled  to  discern  in  the  lowly  man  of 
Nazareth  the  world's  hope,  or  in  the  language  of  his  favorite  prophet,  to 
"  see  the  King  in  his  beauty  ".  To  the  multitude  the  hero  of  the  hour,  the 
great  man,  was  John,  not  Jesus.     But  John  saw  and  believed. 

It  is  common  to  disparage  this  great  act  of  faith.  Because  that  faith 
came  in  the  course  of  the  following  year  to  be  clouded  by  doubt,  it  is  con- 
sidered no  wise  decisive.  The  inquiry  sent  from  the  prison,  "Art  thou  He 
that  shall  come  ",  in  the  opinion  of  Professor  Gilbert  and  others,  shows  that 
John  had  not  fully  accepted  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  But  it  is  surely  a  false 
principle  to  interpret  his  whole  past  career  by  that  temporary  and  partial 
eclipse  of  faith.  John's  problem,  let  us  remember,  was  the  same  as  that  of 
the  apostles  themselves.  If  Jesus  be  truly  the  Messiah,  why  does  He  con- 
tent himself  with  the  role  of  a  teacher  and  a  healer  of  diseases ;  where  are 
the  signs  from  heaven,  glorious  displays  of  overawing  power  ?  Where  is  "  the 
days  of  vengeance  of  our  God  ",  distinctly  predicted  by  the  prophets  as  the 
Messiah's  day .''  It  was  a  signal  proof  of  John's  faith  that  he  brought  his 
great  doubt  to  the  Master  himself,  looked  for  the  answer  to  Him  who  alone 
could  give  it. 

"  Did  never  thorns  thy  path  beset  ? 

Beware, — be  not  deceived  ; 
He  who  has  never  doubted  yet, 

Has  never  yet  believed". 

These  words  of  a  Christian  poet  are  often  perverted  or  misapplied  ; 
but  they  have  in  them  a  truth.  To  quote  an  anonymous  writer:  "  So  little 
inconsistent  with  a  habit  of  intelligent  faith  are  such  transient  invasions  of 


34  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

doubt,  or  such  diminished  perceptions  of  the  evidence  of  truth,  that  it  may 
even  be  said  that  it  is  only  those  who  have  in  some  measure  experienced 
them  who  can  be  said  in  the  highest  sense  to  believe  at  all ". 

Even  Keim,  whose  insight  into  the  facts  of  Christian  experience  is  not 
always  the  profoundest,  says  of  John's  procedure  at  this  crisis :  "  From  his 
dungeon,  where  all  vision  was  shut  out,  John  acknowledges  his  own  subject- 
ion to  the  person  of  Jesus  ". 

John's  message  in  the  wilderness  was  not  so  much  to  tell  what  the  King- 
dom should  be,  as  who  He  should  be — "he  that  cometh  after  me".  After 
the  baptism  he  was  able  authoritatively  to  identify  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the 
Messiah.  Still  later,  having  had,  as  we  may  believe,  opportunity  for  personal 
intercourse  with  Jesus,  he  could  teach  that  fuller,  richer  gospel  of  which  we 
have  reminiscences  from,  the  pen  of  the  fourth  evangelist.  It  is  hardly  to  be 
questioned,  I  take  it,  that  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  after,  if  not  before  the 
baptism  and  temptation,  there  were  interviews  which  afforded  John  a  nearer 
personal  acquaintance  with  his  Master  and  a  better  understanding  of  the 
scriptures  concerning  Him. 

Taking  a  general  view  of  both  the  earlier  and  the  later  ministry,  John's 
teaching  concerning  the  person  and  office  of  Christ  concentrated  itself  upon 
the  following  particulars : 

1.  He  was  the  Anointed  King  of  Israel — the  Son  of  God. 

2.  He  had  had  a  pre-existence  ;  he  was  from  heaven. 

3.  He  was  to  rule  with  justice. 

4.  He  was  to  be  a  Savior. 

5.  He  was  to  bestow  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Our  space  will  not  allow  us  to  discuss  these  separately  at  length.  As  to 
the  term  Son  of  God,  quoted  from  the  Baptist's  teaching  in  the  single 
passage  (John  1  :  34),  "  I  have  seen  and  borne  witness  that  this  is  the  Son 
■of  God",  it  is  difficult  to  determine  the  precise  content.  For  us  now  to 
recover  the  Baptist's  Christology,  whether  that  of  the  earlier,  or  of  the  latter 
stage  of  his  ministry,  is  manifestly  impossible.  As  it  came  from  John's  lips 
did  it  stand  for  the  proper  deity  of  Christ,  as  was  the  case  not  many  years 
later  in  the  early  church  ?  Even  now,  after  the  Christian  thought  of  nine- 
teen centuries,  there  is  scarcely  a  term  in  theology  more  difficult  to  define. 
The  faithful  interpreter  of  Scripture  will  not  attempt  to  read  into  John's 
language  the  dogmatic  distinctions  of  a  later  orthodoxy.  John  did  not 
preach  in  the  wilderness,  or  teach  to  his  disciples,  the  clauses  of  the  Athan- 
asian  creed.  They  would  have  been  incomprehensible  to  him,  even  had  it 
been  possible  to  translate  them  into  the  Hebrew  of  his  day.  The  Qui- 
cicnque  V2ilt, —  that  whoever  will  be  saved  must  "  worship  one  God  in  Trinity, 
and  Trinity  in  Unity  ",  "  neither  confounding  the  persons  nor  dividing  the 
substance  ",  we  do  not  suppose  John  believed  or  preached.  But  he  does 
appear,  in  designating  Jesus  the  Son  of  God,  to  have  expressed  a  belief  in 
his  unique  divinity,  and  to  have  exalted  Him  above  all  other  humanity. 
According  to  Stanton  ("  The  Jewish  and  Christian  Messiah  ",  p.  147)  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  the  Jews  in  pre-Christian  times  ever  used  the  term  Son  of 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL.  35 

God  of  the  Messiah.  John's  testimony  then  marks  a  distinct  advance  in 
the  Messianic  idea. 

The  remarkable  saying  in  which  John  attributes  pre-existence  to  the 
Messiah  is  (in  substance)  given  twice  in  the  chapter  before  us:  John  i:  15, 
29,  "  He  that  cometh  after  me  hath  been  before  me,  for  He  was  before  me  ". 
That  John  attributed  pre-existence  to  the  Messiah  need  not  surprise  us, 
considering  that  the  doctrine  had  already  found  distinct  expression  in  the 
Judaistic  literature  of  the  first  pre-Christian  century.  In  the  Similitudes  of 
Enoch  it  is  said  of  the  Son  of  Man:  "  Before  the  sun  and  the  signs  were 
created,  before  the  stars  of  the  heaven  were  made.  His  name  was  named 
before  the  Lord  of  Spirits  " ;  "  He  has  been  chosen  and  hidden  before  Him 
before  the  creation  of  the  world  and  for  evermore".  "The  Elect  One 
standeth  before  the  Lord  of  Spirits;  and  His  glory  is  for  ever  and  ever,  and 
His  might  unto  all  generations  ".  As  Mr.  Charles,  in  his  edition  of  the 
Book  of  Enoch,  has  shown,  "  Son  of  Man  "  and  "  Elect  One"  are  distinct 
designations  of  the  personal  Messiah;  he  says  further:  the  "actual  pre- 
existence  of  the  Son  of  Man  is  only  in  keeping  with  His  other  attributes  of 
universal  dominion  and  unlimited  judicial  authority  ". 

But  the  visions  of  Daniel  belong  to  a  still  earlier  date.  In  Dan.  7  :  13, 
14  we  read:  "I  saw  in  the  night  visions,  and  behold  there  came  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven  one  like  unto  a  son  of  man,  and  they  came  even  to  the 
ancient  of  days,  and  they  brought  Him  near  before  Him.  And  there  was 
given  Him  dominion  and  glory  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  the  peoples,  nations 
and  languages  should  serve  Him.  His  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion, 
which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  His  kingdom  that  which  shall  not  be 
destroyed  ".  Here,  as  Schiirer  says :  "  The  doctrine  of  the  Messiah's  pre- 
existence  is  already  stated,  for  it  is  self-evident  that  He  who  comes  down 
from  heaven  was  before  in  heaven". 

The  Messiah  was  to  come  with  judgmefit,  and  this  was  to  be  not 
punitive  merely,  but  separative  as  well.  The  ax  brought  to  the  tree,  and 
the  shovel  to  winnow  grain,  are  His  figures, — and  fire.  "  He  shall  baptize 
with  the  Holy  Spirit  and  with  fire";  "the  chaff  He  will  burn  up  with  un- 
quenchable fire  ",  so  reads  the  synoptic  passage.  Here  two  converging 
lines  of  prophetic  symbolism  meet  and  blend.  There  is  a  fire  of  holiness 
and  a  fire  of  wrath.  In  John's  first  use  of  the  symbol,  fire  denotes  the  same 
divine  principle  as  the  Holy  Spirit ;  in  the  latter  part  of  the  passage  it  is 
the  fire  of  wrath.  "John  connects  the  baptism  of  fire  and  the  judgment  of 
fire  without  discrimination  in  time  just  as  the  Old  Testament  prophets  were 
accustomed  to  do  ".  Thus  Isaiah,  for  instance,  views  the  Messiah's  advent 
as  "  the  year  of  Jehovah's  favor,  and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God  ". 

The  Messiah  was  to  be  a  Savior, — a  Savior  from  sin.  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ".  That  John  took 
his  figure  of  the  lamb  from  the  53rd  chapter  of  Isaiah  is  now  admitted  by 
the  great  majority  of  interpreters.  Whether  this  be  the  case  or  not,  it  never- 
theless remains  true  that  the  lamb  in  the  religious  vocabulary  of  the  Jews 
was  a  symbol  of  expiatory  sacrifice.  Still,  this  utterance  attributed  to  John 
is,  if  we  consider  when  it  was  uttered,  startling  enough.     Can  he  so  early 


36  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

have  seized  upon  the  Christian  conception  of  an  atonement  made  in  the 
person  of  the  Savior,  which  even  the  apostles  failed  to  apprehend  until 
after  that  atonement  had  actually  taken  place?  It  is  not  surprising  that 
many  scholars  are  inclined  to  question  the  literal  correctness  of  the  passage 
as  it  stands.  Kohler  is  one  who  maintains  the  genuineness  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel  and  its  historicity  in  general;  he  holds,  however,  that  the  words 
"who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world"  are  not  the  Baptist's  own,  but  an 
explanatory  addition  of  the  evangelist  writing  long  afterwards,  when  the 
idea  of  the  atonement  had  become  inseparably  connected  in  Christian 
thought  with  the  Savior's  death  on  the  cross.  But  I  cannot  see  that  histor- 
ical probability  is  altogether  against  the  saying  just  as  we  have  it.  John  the 
Baptist  was  deeply  read  in  Isaiah,  and  Isaiah  had  shown  that  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah,  (whether  an  ideal  or  an  actual  person)  must  suffer.  Why  may 
not  John,  on  his  mount  of  spiritual  vision  far  above  all  his  contemporaries, 
have  had  some  glimpses,  however  obscure,  of  a  mysterious  tragedy  of  suf- 
fering that  should  expiate  the  guilt  of  human  sin  and  reconcile  the  world 
to  God? 

John's  doctrine  of  the  Messiah  reaches  its  cUmax  in  the  saying,  Jo.  i  : 
33  :  Christ  is  '■'■He  that  baptizeth  in  the  Holy  Spirit ''\  All  four  of  the  gospels 
report  this  saying.  It  seems  indeed  to  be  the  keystone  of  his  soteriology.  Our 
Lord  himself  repeated  it  in  the  last  interview  with  his  disciples  on  the  mount 
of  ascension,  and  Peter  quotes  it  (in  the  form  given  it.  by  Jesus)  to  the 
church  at  Jerusalem  (Acts  1 1  :  i6)..  It  is  remarkable  that  these  are  the  only 
passages  in  the  New  Testament  where  the  baptism  in,  or  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  spoken  of,  with  the  possible  exception  of  i  Cor.  12  :  13.  The  con- 
ception of  the  bestowment  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  baptism  has  had  special 
prominence  in  recent  theological  and  devotional  literature.  It  would  appear 
to  have  originated  with  John. 

In  that  phrase  he  seems  to  have  embodied  his  highest  conception  of 
Christ's  saving  work.  By  this  gift,  this  sovereign  act,  Christ  was  to  be  the 
founder  of  the  new  covenant,  and  the  progenitor  of  a  new  race.  Harnack 
is  strangely  superficial  in  his  view  that  John's  message  did  not  go  beyond 
the  lines  of  repentance.  Keim  is  here  the  truer  interpreter,  and  penetrates 
to  the  inner  secret  of  the  Baptist's  gospel.  "John  ",  he  says,  "  is  no  stranger 
to  the  notion  of  grace  ".  "  The  spiritual  stars  of  the  kingdom  of  God  now 
approaching  were,  for  John,  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  ". 
Keim  practically  discards  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  therefore  comes  to  this 
conclusion  on  the  sole  authority  of  the  synoptic  narrative.  But  the  Fourth 
Gospel  sets  the  Baptist's  teaching  concerning  Christ  as  the  bearer  and  the 
gjiver  of  the  Spirit  in  bold  relief.  May  it  not  have  been  due  in  part  to  his 
earlier  teacher  that  this  evangelist  distinguishes  the  gospel  period  as  one 
during  which,  as  he  says,  "  the  Spirit  was  not  yet  given  ",  and  that  he,  more 
fully  than  the  others,  records  Christ's  own  teaching  concerning  the  future 
advent  of  the  Spirit  ? 

It  has  been  mentioned  above  that  our  Lord  Himself  in  His  promise  of 
the  Spirit's  coming  borrowed  John  the  Baptist's  figurative  phrase,  "  baptized 
with  the  Holy  Spirit",     In  some  early  copies  of  Luke  the  Lord's  Prayer 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL.  37 

given  in  the  eleventh  chapter  had  as  the  second  petition,  "  May  thy  Holy 
Spirit  come  upon  us  and  purify  us",  instead  of  "Thy  kingdom  come",  or, 
"  Thy  will  be  done  ".  Christ's  teaching  on  that  occasion  was  given,  as  Luke 
mentions,  in  response  to  His  disciples'  request,  "  Teach  us  to  pray,  even  as 
John  taught  his  disciples  ".  It  is  quite  credible  that  here  Jesus  quoted,  and 
gave  His  sanction  to  a  petition  which  had  already  been  taught  by  John.  In 
any  case  the  coincidence  is  an  interesting  one,  and  may  again  raise  the 
question  whether  John's  preaching  was  so  non-Christian  as  it  is  commonly 
represented. 

II.  /o/in  preached  the  Kingdom  of  God.  "  And  in  those  days  came 
John  the  Baptist  saying.  Repent  j'e ;  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand  "  (Mt.  3:1,2).  Prophets  had  foretold  the  founding  of  a  kingdom,  and 
this,  as  we  have  seen,  had  become  the  goal  of  the  Messianic  hope.  John's 
doctrine  of  the  kingdom  is  not  even  outlined  in  the  gospels.  Probably  it 
remained  undeveloped,  as  was  the  case  with  the  apostles  until  after  the 
advent  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  sufficiently  clear,  however,  to  what  general  type 
it  belonged.  There  are  at  least  three  prominent  types  of  the  kingdom  idea 
which  have  been  widely  influential  in  history  and  in  Christian  theology. 

1 .  That  of  an  ecclesiastical  state.  This  was  the  thoroughly  political 
idea  that  dominated  Judaism. 

2.  The  idea  of  a  universal  church,  an  ecclesiastical  organization  includ- 
ing all  redeemed  souls — the  Roman  Catholic  idea  at  its  best. 

3.  The  kingdom  as  an  ethical  principle — the  law  of  love  made  operative 
in  human  society — an  idea  strongly  emphasized  in  the  theology  of  Ritschl. 

No  one  of  these  quite  answers  to  the  New  Testament  idea,  or,  as  I 
understand  it,  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  In  the  New  Testament  it  is  the 
eschatological  aspect  that  predominates.  It  exists  on  the  earth,  but  it 
reaches  into  the  world  beyond,  and  belongs  chiefly  to  an  order  of  things  not 
seen  or  temporal.  It  is  the  new  spiritual  fellowship,  the  new  moral  order, 
introduced  into  the  world  by  Christ — not  an  ecclesiastical  state,  not  a  world- 
church,  not  an  ethical  system  or  society  permeated  by  ethical  ideas, — but  a 
new  spiritually  organized  life.  As  it  now  exists  on  earth  it  is  the  totality  of 
the  Christian  life  as  opposed  to  the  world's  sin. 

John's  idea  of  the  kingdom  appears  rather  to  have  conformed  to  the 
latter  type.  It  was  not  the  distinctive  note  of  his  teaching,  and  he  did  not 
make  it  his  working  idea.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  Isaiah  doctrine  of  "the 
remnant ",  which  afterwards  impressed  itself  upon  the  thought  of  the  apostle 
Paul,  had  its  influence  in  determining  John's  conception  of  the  kingdom. 
The  prophetic  manifesto  of  the  Baptist's  mission,  attributed  by  Luke  to  the 
angel  Gabriel,  declares  that  he  is  to  make  ready  for  Jehovah  "a  prepared 
people  ".  The  word  for  people  is  laos,  properly  denoting  not  a  mere  mul- 
titude or  aggregate  of  individuals,  but  a  race  or  nation,  John  seems  not  to 
have  expected  the  existing  Israel  to  be  that  elect  race;  there  must  be 
gathered  a  spiritual  Israel,  who  should  hear  the  prophetic  call,  "  Come  ye 
out  from  among  them  and  be  ye  separate  ",  and  who  should  thus  constitute 
"the  remnant  ". 


38  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Accordingly  he  came  not  only  to  preach  and  to  teach,  but  to  baptize. 
The  Gospels  and  Josephus  are  not  far  apart  in  their  interpretation  of  this 
characteristic  function  of  his  ministry.  In  both  these  sources  John's  rite 
of  baptism  is  viewed  as  an  associative  act.  Furthermore,  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  plainly  view  it  as  initiatory,  marking  one's  entrance  not  merely 
upon  a  new  life,  but  into  a  new  community.  On  this  point  Calvin  took 
issue  with  the  Roman  Catholic  theology  which  had  denied  to  the  Johannine 
ordinance  the  essential  significance  of  Christian  baptism.  The  Council  of 
Trent  subsequently  reaffirmed  emphatically  the  Catholic  position,  declaring 
in  their  decree :  "If  any  one  affirms  that  the  baptism  of  John  had  the  same 
force  as  the  baptism  of  Christ,  let  him  be  anathema ".  We  will  risk  the 
anathema  and  side  with  Calvin. 

The  rite  as  John  administered  it  had  a  double  significance.  Regarded 
as  the  act  of  the  person  submitting  to  it,  it  was  symbolically  declarative  of 
repentance  toward  God  and  of  faith  in  the  Messiah.  On  the  part  of  the 
administrator,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  intended  to  declare  that  the  person 
baptized  had  fulfilled  the  requisite  conditions  and  was  now  inducted  into 
the  new  fellowship  or  society. 

Thus  John's  doctrine  of  the  kingdom  concentrated  itself  upon  the  for- 
mation of  the  new  covenant-community  which  was  to  supersede  the  old 
theocracy.  His  gospel,  his  ministry  as  a  teacher,  lay  in  part  along  this  line. 
He  was  to  gather  and  instruct  a  body  of  disciples  which  should  become  a 
nucleus  of  the  Christian  kingdom  and  church.  That  body  or  sect  of  disciples 
was  not  itself  the  church,  it  was  not  the  kingdom,  but  it  was  a  religious 
fellowship  or  society  in  which  the  new  kingdom  first  took  a  partially  organ- 
ized form.  Its  members  constituted  a  quasi-sect,  known  as  the  disciples  of 
John.  They  followed  certain  teachings  and  observances.  Those  of  them 
who  did  not  fully  carry  out  the  instructions  of  their  master  and  identify  them- 
selves with  the  Christian  church  remained  long  afterwards  a  separate 
Jewish  sect,  traces  of  whose  existence  still  remain  in  the  East. 

But,  as  already  said,  John's  thought  was  less  of  the  kingdom  than  of 
the  King — a  personal  Deliverer.  This  was  the  case  also  with  Peter  and 
Paul,  and  with  John  the  apostle.  In  this  respect  do  they  not  remain  a  les- 
son and  a  law  to  us  1  With  the  kingdom  as  a  regulative  idea  and  as  a  work- 
ing principle  we  have  less  to  do,  much  more  with  our  personal  relations  to 
Christ  and  His  church. 

III.  A  Gospel  of  Righteousness.  "John  came  unto  you  in  the  way  of 
righteousness  ",  said  our  Lord  to  the  Jewish  leaders  in  the  temple, — "  John 
came  unto  you  in  the  way  of  righteousness,  and  ye  did  not  believe  him  and 
repent"  (Matt.  21  :32).  Christ  here  sets  the  Forerunner's  teaching  not  in 
opposition  to,  but  in  line  with  His  own.  For  righteousness  with  John  was 
not  legalism.  This  we  must  insist  upon,  despite  eminent  authorities  to  the 
contrary. 

In  the  Expositor's  Greek  Testament,  Dr.  A.  B.  Bruce,  contrasting  John 
and  Jesus,  says,  "  The  message  of  the  one  was  legal,  the  other  evangelic  ". 
"  The  Baptist  had  a  passion  for  righteousness,  yet  his  conception  of  right- 
eousness was  narrow,  severe,  legal ".     And  in  his  comment  on  the  words  of 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL.  39 

Christ  cited  above,  "John  came  unto  you  in  the  way  of  righteousness",  he 
explains  them  as  meaning,  "  he  cultivated  legal  piety  like  yourselves  ".  We 
shall  not  go  to  the  other  extreme  and  say  with  Dr.  Fairbairn,  in  his  "  Studies 
in  the  Life  of  Christ  ",  that  John  "  was  a  sort  of  personified  revolt  against  the 
law,  written  and  oral",  reviving  "the  ancient  conflict  of  his  order  against 
the  ritualism  of  the  temple  and  the  legalism  of  the  schools  ".  But  it  is 
surely  a  sheer  perversion  of  the  record  to  put  John's  teaching  in  opposition, 
or  even  in  antithesis  to  that  of  Christ.  It  was  Jesus,  not  John,  who  said, 
"  Except  your  righteousness  shall  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ".  It 
was  not  John,  but  Jesus,  who  said,  "  One  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise 
pass  away  from  the  law  until  all  things  shall  be  accomplished  ".  The  essence 
of  legalism  consists  in  substituting  the  outward  form  for  the  inward  reality. 
It  is  satisfied  with  the  external.  It  is  only  a  nominal,  not  a  real  obedience. 
Thus  it  is  not  righteousness  at  all,  it  is  literalism,  the  letter  that  killeth,  not 
the  spirit,  that  inward  reality  without  which  there  can  be  no  true  normal  life. 

John's  message  of  (righteousnes^  was  not  legalism  ;  on  the  other  hand  it 
was  not  righteousness  wdth  the  idea  of  law  left  out.  It  impUed,  as  in  script- 
ure it  always  implies  when  applied  to  human  life  and  conduct,  conformity 
to  a  standard  of  duty,  obedience  to  moral  law.  It  describes  personal  life  as 
related  to  a  government,  not  necessarily  to  an  expressed  rule,  but  always  to 
a  moral  order.  The  phrase  "  conformity  to  truth  "  is  not  sufficient  to  define 
it ;  it  is  conformity  to  imperative  truth.  It  implies  submission  to  authority, 
to  some  ruling  will.  There  have  been  times  when  it  would  have  been  quite 
superfluous  to  maintain  that  righteousness  in  the  Christian  vocabulary  car- 
ries with  it  the  idea  of  obedience,  so  obvious  and  distinct  is  the  thought  of 
the  New  Testament  writers  on  that  point.  But  now  the  author  of  "  Pro 
Christo  et  Ecclesia  "  is  quoted  as  declaring:  "  Obedience  is  not  a  Christian 
idea,  it  is  an  anti-Christian  idea,  against  which  our  Lord  most  strenuously 
set  His  face  ",  and  a  noted  German  theologian  assures  us  that  "  Paul  is  the 
great  discoverer  of  the  fact  that  God  and  law  are  mutually  exclusive  ". 

We  have  already  emphasized  the  testimony  of  the  four  evangelists  that 
John  preached  a  gospel  of  grace — of  One  who  was  to  take  away  guilt  and  to 
bestow  the  Spirit  of  life  and  power.  It  was  at  the  same  time  a  gospel  of 
ethical  righteousness — of  obedience.  According  to  the  angelic  prediction, 
he  was  to  turn  "  the  disobedient  to  walk  in  the  wisdom  of  the  righteous  " 
(Luke  I  :  1 7).  The  Messiah  was  to  be  Savior,  none  the  less  was  He  to  be 
Lord  and  King.  The  majesty  and  the  justice  of  the  divine  government  were 
to  be  disclosed  in  His  person.  The  voice  of  prophecy  had  already  declared, 
"A  king  shall  rule  in  righteousness  " ;  "  He  shall  judge  Thy  people  with 
righteousness  ".  Hence  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  retribution  upon  the  unre- 
pentant was  not  omitted  from  John's  message  to  Israel,  and,  like  Paul,  he 
"  reasoned  of  righteousness,  of  temperance,  and  of  the  judgment  to  come  ". 

His  conception  of  the  kingdom,  as  we  have  already  observed,  appears 
to  have  remained  undeveloped.  But  it  was  certainly  not  that  pitiful  anomaly 
made  prominent  in  much  of  the  popular  theology  today,  a  kingdom  without 
government,  a  conception  of  the   kingdom  of   Christ  in  which  sovereignty 


40  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

is  unnecessary,  which  has  no  subjects  who  are  to  obey,  and  no  established 
imperative  moral  order. 

That  righteousness  in  John's  conception,  while  not  legalism,  was  yet  on 
the  other  hand  no  mere  emotional  goodness,  but  charged  with  its  full  ethical 
and  positive  Biblical  meaning,  is  indicated  by  the  stress  which  is  laid  on 
repentance  as  requisite  to  membership  in  the  kingdom :  "  Repent  ye ;  for 
the  kmgdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand  ".  Repentance  as  he  preached  it  was 
repentance  of  sin,  and  denoted  not  merely  sin  felt  sorry  for,  but  sin 
renounced,  and  renounced  permanently,  perpetually.  This  is  clearly  indi- 
cated in  Matt.  3:11,  "I  baptize  you  in  water  unto  repentance  ".  His  bap- 
tism was  intended  to  symbolize  the  final  and  absolute  separation  from  the 
former  sinful  life  of  the  person  who  received  it ;  it  was  "  unto  ",  it  had  in 
view  a  perpetually  realized  repentance. 

Thus  John's  gospel  included  the  demand  for  an  ethical  revival.  His 
teaching  to  his  disciples  was  not  only  Messianic  doctrine,  but  practical 
religion.  Only  the  merest  fragments  of  his  ethical  teaching  remain,  pre- 
served for  the  most  part  in  Luke.  It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  the  present 
paper  to  consider  them  in  detail.  We  also  learn  incidentally  from  Luke 
that  there  was  practical  instruction  on  the  subject  of  prayer. 

If  John  the  Baptist's  gospel  was  one  of  practical  righteousness  and  of 
obedience  to  law,  is  it  not  a  gospel  for  us  now  and  here — here  in  America, 
in  church  as  well  as  in  state }  I  know  of  no  fact  more  ominous  of  evil  than 
the  eifort  making  m  so  many  quarters  to  throw  overboard  the  idea  of 
authority  in  Christian  theology,  and  of  obedience  in  the  ethics  of  the 
Christian  life.  It  is  the  testimony  of  many  thoughtful  and  competent 
observers  that  the  idea  of  obligatory  law  is  becoming  in  a  measure  obsolete 
among  us.  What  wonder,  when  a  distinguished  theologian  tells  us  that 
"  we  must  now  replace  the  conception  of  a  divine  governor  by  that  of  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  the  conception  of  a  divine  government  by  that  of  the 
divine  family  ".  Neither  the  prophets  of  the  old  nor  the  prophets  of  the 
new  covenant  came  with  such  an  exhortation,  least  of  all  did  John  the 
Baptist.  Let  us  rather  with  him  revive  the  idea  of  a  divine  government,  and 
educate  the  modern  conscience  into  an  apprehension  of  its  true  import. 
Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  struck  a  true  note  in  his  volume  of  discourses,  entitled, 
"  The  Laws  of  Christ  for  Common  Life".  A  single  quotation  from  that 
book  may  fitly  close  the  present  address,  and  add  the  weight  of  its 
eloquent  appeal  to  the  moral  message  of  John  the  Baptist  to  our  own  time. 

"  The  Jewish  revival  under  Hezekiah  was  wrecked  because  it  was  not 
accompanied  by  a  great  reformation  in  morals.  How  is  it  with  ourselves  ? 
Have  the  religious  movements  of  late  years  produced  any  considerable 
ethical  reforms.''  Has  the  ethical  revival  kept  pace  with  the  religious? 
Has  our  zeal  for  the  building  of  churches,  for  the  ingathering  of  members 
and  for  religious  education  been  accompanied  with  any  marked  improve- 
ment in  Christian  character } 

"  We  are  entreating  God  to  give  greater  energy  and  larger  success  to 
all  the  various  forms  of  our  Christian  work.  It  is  very  necessary  for  us  to 
remember  that  we  have  no  right  to  expect  that  God  will  keep  His  promises 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND  HIS  GOSPEL.  41 

unless  we  keep  His  commandments.  The  words  of  the  prophet,  '  Wash 
you,  make  you  cleaft  ;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine 
eyes ;  cease  to  do  evil ;  learn  to  do  well ',  were  addressed,  not  to  the  irre- 
ligious, but  to  those  who  were  zealous  in  attending  the  services  of  the  temple 
and  in  offering  their  sacrifices  on  the  altar  of  God.  And  the  words  which 
follow,  '  Come  now,  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the  Lord,  though  your  sins 
be  as  scarlet  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow  ;  though  they  be  red  like  crim- 
son, they  shall  be  as  wool ',  are  not  an  assurance  that  God  will  forgive  the 
sins  of  men  who  have  lived  an  irreligious  life  if  they  become  devout,  but  an 
assurance  that  He  will  forgive  the  sins  of  those  who  are  earnest  in  religious 
services,  if  they  set  themselves  honestly  to  the  moral  reformation  of  their 
own  conduct.  If  they  put  away  the  evil  of  their  doings,  if  they  cease  to  do 
evil,  learn  to  do  well,  God  will  have  mercy  upon  them. 

"  No  matter  how  noble  may  be  the  churches  that  we  build,  no  matter 
how  solemn  may  be  the  religious  services  which  we  celebrate,  no  matter 
how  earnestly  we  may  preach  the  Gospel,  no  matter  with  what  fervor  we 
may  pray  to  God  to  grant  us  a  great  religious  revival,  we  shall  fail  utterly  if 
in  our  ordinary  life  we  show  no  practical  proof  that  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  to  which  we  profess  to  belong  there  is  a  loftier  type  of  character 
than  in  the  world  outside." 


*  THE  CALL  OF  THE  HRST  DISCIPLES. 

(  St.  John  i  :  29-5 1 .) 

by  rkv.  a..  c.  dixon,  d.  t>., 

Pastor  of  the  Ruggles  Street  Baptist  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 

We  have  in  the  first  chapter  of  John's  Gospel  the  method  by  which 
God  calls  His  disciples  and  the  purpose  of  the  call.  The  method  is  four- 
fold and  the  purpose  is  five-fold. 

I.    THE  METHOD  OF  THE  CALL. 

1.  By  public  procla7nation.  John  stood  in  the  open  and  said,  "  Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ".  If  we  would 
make  the  multitude  hear  the  Gospel,  we  must,  as  John  did,  take  the  Gospel 
to  them.  If  they  have  forsaken  the  church,  the  church  must  not  forsake 
them.  They  can  be  found  in  the  streets,  and  they  will  come  to  the  theatre 
or  secular  hall  more  readily  than  to  the  church.  Let  no  expense  of  strength, 
time  or  money  be  spared,  that  the  crowds  may  be  reached  with  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation. 

But  in  John's  preaching  there  was  more  than  proclamation.  There 
was  testimony.  Thirteen  words  are  given  to  the  proclamation,  and  one 
hundred  and  sixteen  to  the  testimony.  And  though  John  was  no  egotist, 
he  uses  the  personal  pronouns  "I  "  and  "me"  eleven  times.  He  asserts 
the  superiority  of  Christ  to  himself,  and  declares  that  his  purpose  in  bap- 
tizing was  to  manifest  Him  to  Israel.  He  tells  what  he  knows  about  Christ, 
and  closes  with  the  superb  confession:  "  I  saw  and  bare  record  that  this 
is  the  Son  of  God  ".  With  every  proclamation  of  Jesus  there  should  go  our 
testimony  as  to  what  He  is  to  us,  and  the  testimony  should  be  as  public  as 
the  proclamation.  We  preach  to  the  multitude,  and  have  our  testimony 
meetings  among  ourselves.  The  man  without  a  testimony  has  no  place  in 
the  pulpit.  He  is  to  be  a  witness  as  well  as  a  minister,  and  in  the  witness 
box  there  must  be  a  personal  knowledge. 

2.  By  more  private  proclamation.  "Again  the  next  day  after  John 
stood  and  two  of  his  disciples,  and  looking  upon  Jesus  as  He  walked,  he 
saith,  '  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God ' ".  There  was  no  need  of  his  adding, 
"which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world",  for  these  well-instructed  disci- 
ples of  John  knew  what  the  mission  of  the  Lamb  of  God  was.  They  under- 
stood the  symbolism  of  the  paschal  lamb,  and  were  looking  for  Him  to 
Whom  it  pointed. 

These  two  disciples  believed  in  John,  and  that  made  it  easy  for  John 
to  win  them  to  Christ.  "The  two  disciples  heard  him  speak  and  they 
followed  Jesus  ".     All  of  us  have  our  little  coteries  of  admirers  and  friends. 


*  Delivered  at  the  First  Conference,  held  at  the  Fir.st  Baptist  Church,  October  21,  1903. 

42 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  FIRST  DISCIPLES.  43 

Have  we,  like  John,  won  them  to  Christ?  Have  we  so  lived  before  them 
that  when  we  speak  to  them  of  Jesus  they  immediately  accept  and  follow 
Him  ?  How  about  our  children  ?  Has  their  confidence  in  us  made  it  easy 
for  us  to  win  them  for  Christ  ?  Or  have  we  exhibited  to  them  such  incon- 
sistencies of  life  and  have  indulged  with  them  in  such  doubtful  amusements 
that  they  have  reason  to  call  in  question  our  sincerity  when  we  assure  them 
that  the  Christian  life  is  the  noblest  and  happiest  in  the  world  ?  How 
about  our  Sunday  School  class  ?  If  we  have  won  their  respect  and  love, 
it  will  be  easy  for  us  to  win  them  to  Christ.  A  young  lady  in  a  Bible 
school  requested  the  superintendent  to  give  all  her  class  except  two  to 
another  teacher.  He  was  surprised,  and  asked  the  reason.  Her  reply  was 
that  all  her  class  except  two  had  been  converted,  and  she  desired  to  retain 
them  and  seek  a  new  class,  that  she  might  win  them  to  Christ.  Within  a 
few  months  her  heart's  desire  was  gratified. 

How  about  those  with  whom  you  work  every  day  in  the  shop  or  store  ? 
If  you  are  a  consistent  Christian,  you  have  influence  with  them.  Have  you 
used  that  influence  in  winning  them  to  Christ?  Two  young  men  at  work 
in  the  same  office  had  great  respect  for  each  other,  and  one  of  them  was 
converted  by  means  of  a  letter  from  a  friend.  Anxious  to  win  his  office 
friend  to  Christ,  he  one  day  expressed  the  wish  that  he  were  a  Christian, 
when  the  friend  had  to  confess  with  shame  that  he  was  a  Christian,  but 
such  a  negative  one  that  the  young  man  working  at  his  side  for  a  year  or 
more  did  not  find  it  out.  The  young  man  won  by  the  letter  was  H.  C. 
Trumbull,  who  became  famous  as  a  preacher,  editor  and  author.  The 
office-mate  lost  the  opportunity  of  doing  a  great  work  for  Christ  and  filling 
his  life  with  the  joy  of  feeling  that  he  was  a  co-worker  with  God  in  the  wide 
field  of  usefulness  which  Dr.  Trumbull  occupied. 

How  about  the  social  circle  in  which  you  move  ?  Have  you  won  any 
of  them  to  Christ,  or  have  you  so  drifted  into  their  worldly  thoughts  and 
ways  that  they  find  that  they  have  won  you  and  that  you  really  have  noth- 
ing better  to  offer  them  than  they  have  to  offer  you  ? 

A  successful  business  man  in  New  York  went  one  evening  with  his 
wife  to  an  evangelistic  meeting;  and  as  they  were  going  home  she  ventured 
to  say,  "My  dear,  I  was  hoping  that  you  would  tonight  manifest  some  in- 
terest in  your  spiritual  welfare,  for  I  wish  you  to  know  that  I  pray  for  you 
every  day,  and  nothing  could  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to  have  you  be- 
come a  Christian ".  He  replied,  "  I  am  glad  that  you  have  mentioned 
the  subject,  and  when  we  get  home  we  will  talk  the  matter  over  ".  After 
they  had  taken  off  their  wraps  and  were  comfortably  seated  in  the  parlor,  he 
turned  to  her  and  said  with  gentle  earnestness,  "  Now,  my  dear,  you  say 
you  want  me  to  become  a  Christian,  and  I  promise  that  I  will  try  to  be- 
come one  if  you  will  show  me  in  what  respect  you  as  a  Christian  differ  from 
me  who  have  made  no  profession  of  religion.  You  go  to  the  theatre  ;  so  do 
I ;  and  you  seem  to  enjoy  it  as  much  as  I  do.  I  play  cards,  and  you  can 
beat  me.  I  drink  wine  moderately,  and  so  do  you.  I  dance  sometimes, 
and  so  do  you.  I  do  not  lie  nor  steal  nor  kill  nor  commit  adultery.  Both 
positively  and  negatively  we  are  alike  so  far  as  I   can  see.     You  say  you 


44  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

want  me  to  be  converted.  Can  you  tell  me  from  what  or  to  what  I  am  to 
be  converted?"  The  wife  was  speechless,  but  that  night,  when  face  to 
face  with  God  in  prayer,  she  said  something  like  this :  "  Lord,  forgive  me 
the  great  mistake  I  now  see  that  I  have  made  in  dealing  with  my  husband. 
Thou  knowest  that  I  have  had  the  motive  of  seeking  to  win  him  to  Thee 
and  the  church  by  going  with  him  and  doing  as  he  does  even  when  it  was 
distasteful  to  me.  And  now  I  can  see  that,  though  he  loves  me,  he  has  no 
confidence  in  my  religion.  Oh  Lord,  Thou  knowest  that  I  have  in  Thee 
and  Thy  work  a  joy  which  he  has  not,  and  I  pray  Thee  to  help  me  from 
this  time  to  be  so  faithful  to  Thee  and  my  deeper  spiritual  nature  that  he 
will  be  convinced  that  I  have  something  better  than  he  has  ". 

If  I  were  to  mention  the  name  of  this  man,  some  of  you  would  recog- 
nize him  as  a  man  eminent  in  the  world  of  business,  and  you  would  also 
recognize  him  as  an  eminent  Christian  worker,  giving  time  and  money  for 
the  advancement  of  the  cause  of  Christ.  And  if  you  gain  his  confidence, 
he  will  tell  you  as  he  has  told  others  that  he  was  led  to  seek  salvation  when 
he  noticed  that  the  wife  he  loved  above  his  life  had  an  experience  which 
separated  her  from  the  world  and  gave  her  a  joy  superior  to  the  doubtful 
amusements,  which  even  before  his  conversion,  he  believed  were  not  in 
harmony  with  the  pure  spirit  of  Christianity.  When  our  friends  in  the 
family  or  social  circle  see  that  we  have  yielded  to  their  ways,  they  conclude, 
with  good  reason,  that  they  have  captured  us,  and,  though  they  may 
esteem  us  for  many  excellent  qualities,  they  regard  our  religious  profession 
as  a  sort  of  fad  or  idiosyncracy,  if  not  a  weakness,  that  they  must  tolerate. 
With  such  an  abiding  impression  upon  their  minds  any  spasmodic  efforts 
we  may  make  for  their  conversion  during  a  religious  revival  will  not  count 
for  much.  However  convincing  the  argument  that  you  have  the  right  to  assert 
your  Christian  privilege  and  indulge  things  that  are  not  morally  wrong,  be- 
cause you  are  not  under  the  law  but  under  grace,  it  remains  true  that  the 
worldly  people  who  enjoy  these  things  with  you  are  not  attracted  to  the  brand 
of  religion  which  you  exhibit ;  and  if  they  join  your  church  it  is  because  they 
regard  the  church  as  a  worldly  institution  and  they  are  fit  for  membership 
because  you  are  as  worldly  as  they  are.  The  men  who  really  win  others  to 
Christ  are  the  Pauls  who  assert  the  high  Christian  privilege  of  giving  up 
their  privileges,  that  they  may  not  be  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  others  ; 
who  convince  others  that  they  have  better  meat  to  eat  than  that  offered  to 
idols,  that  it  is  no  real  sacrifice  to  give  up  the  garlic  and  onions  of  Egypt 
for  the  manna  from  heaven.  Such  Christians  are  the  insulated  wires 
through  which  flows  the  current  of  divine  power. 

3.  By  itidividual  contact.  It  is  evident  that  Andrew  and  John  started 
for  their  brothers  just  as  soon  as  they  were  convinced  that  they  had  found 
the  Messiah.  John  says  that  Andrew  "first  findeth  his  brother  Simon", 
and  the  meaning  is  plain  that  Andrew  found  Simon  before  John  found 
James.  It  was  a  sort  of  race  between  them  as  to  which  would  be  the  first 
to  find  his  brother  and  tell  him  the  good  news.  Andrew  was  not  a  great 
preacher,  so  far  as  we  know,  but  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  while  Peter 
preached  with  a  tongue  of  fire  and  three  thousand  were  converted,  he  had 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  TTRST  DISCIPLES.  45 

a  right  to  feel  that  Peter's  great  sermon  was  the  echo  of  the  personal  word 
which  brought  him  to  Jesus. 

As  soon  as  Jesus  found  Philip,  he  went  to  the  home  of  his  friend 
Nathanael,  and  said,  "  We  have  found  him  of  whom  Moses  in  the  law  and 
the  prophets  did  write,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  son  of  Joseph".  Nathanael 
was  a  learned  Jew,  while  Philip  was  an  unlettered  peasant,  and  Archibald 
Brown  may  be  right  when  he  says  that  Philip  misquoted  his  scripture,  for 
neither  Moses  nor  the  prophets  wrote  of  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  Joseph,  or  as 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Nathanael  therefore  quietly  rebukes  Philip  for  his 
blunder  in  misquoting  scripture  when  he  asks,  "  Can  any  good  thing  come 
out  of  Nazareth  ?  "  Philip  acknowledges  the  mild  impeachment  as  he  says, 
"  Come  and  see  ".  As  if  to  say,  "  Nathanael,  I  am  not  up  in  Scripture  like 
you,  but  come  and  see  Him  for  yourself.  Though  I  may  blunder  in  my 
Scripture  quotation,  I  have  not  blundered  in  my  estimate  of  Jesus  ".  And 
thus  a  man  with  an  experience  is  ready  for  soul-winning  even  though  he  may 
be  ignorant  of  many  things  that  it  is  important  to  know.  If  you  have  a 
vision  of  Christ  as  the  Messiah  and  your  Savior,  tell  someone  else  about 
Him.  An  illiterate  cook  in  a  country  village  won  to  Christ  some  of  the  best 
people  in  it,  because  she  had  a  story  of  personal  salvation  to  tell,  and  the 
people  for  whom  she  worked  testified  that  her  character  confirmed  the 
truth  of  her  story.  When  Robert  McCall  began  his  work  in  Paris,  he  knew 
just  two  sentences  in  French, — "God  loves  you  "and  "I  love  you".  He 
spoke  these  short  sentences  to  the  people  as  he  met  them  on  the  street,  and 
began  in  this  way  his  most  successful  life-work.  We  should  be  accurate  in 
our  Scripture  quotations,  but  let  not  the  fear  of  making  mistakes  prevent  us 
from  telling  others  of  the  Savior  we  trust  and  love. 

4.  By  the  direct  contact  of  Christ.  In  the  case  of  Philip  there  was  no 
intermediate  human  agency.  Jesus  found  him  and  said,  "  Follow  Me  ". 
And  shall  we  deny  that  Jesus  at  this  day  presents  Himself  directly  to  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men  and  wins  them  to  Himself?  It  is  doubtless  excep- 
tional, but,  in  view  of  this  case,  I  dare  not  say  impossible.  It  implies  previ- 
ous knowledge,  for  Philip  was  evidently  looking  for  the  Messiah.  He  had 
read  the  Scriptures,  even  if  his  memory  were  faulty.  And  when  there  is  a 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  God  may  move  through  it  directly  on  the  human 
soul.  Every  flower  may  suggest  the  lily  of  the  valley,  every  stone  the  rock 
of  ages,  every  star  the  star  of  Bethlehem,  every  breeze  the  work  of  the 
Spirit,  every  spring  of  water  the  fountain  open  for  all  uncleanness,  every 
path  the  way  of  life,  every  flock  of  sheep  the  Good  Shepherd,  every  sparrow 
the  care  of  our  Father,  every  sunrise  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  every  meal 
the  bread  of  life,  and  every  garment  the  robe  of  His  righteousness.  Christ 
has  given  to  almost  everything  in  nature  a  tongue  of  suggestiveness  with 
which  it  speaks  in  silent  eloquence  directly  to  the  hearts  of  men.  During 
a  revival  in  a  New  England  town,  people  were  convicted  and  converted 
before  they  came  to  church.  A  wealthy  gentleman  told  me  that  his  ungodly 
coachman,  who  had  shunned  the  meetings  as  he  would  small-pox,  was 
seized  with  sudden  conviction  of  sin  while  he  was  feeding  his  horses,  and, 
kneeling  in  the  hay  of  the  stable  loft,  accepted  Christ  as  his  Savior  and 


46  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Lord.  The  atmosphere  of  the  town  seemed  to  be  charged  with  the  power 
of  God.  Such  is  the  case  when  the  word  has  been  faithfully  preached  and 
the  people  of  God  are  in  the  spirit  of  intercessory  prayer. 

n.    THE  PURPOSE  OF  THE  CALL. 

1.  To  salvatioji.  John  was  no  mere  reformer.  He  did  give  advice  to 
publicans  and  soldiers,  but  it  was  incidental.  The  purpose  of  his  life-work 
is  seen  in  the  words,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world  ".  The  fact  and  problem  of  sin  confronted  him.  He  knew 
that  men  were  guilty  and  lost.  The  first  thing,  therefore,  which  everyone 
needs  is  a  Savior  from  sin.  We  are  not  ready  to  follow  Him  as  Leader  or 
walk  with  Him  as  Friend  until  sin  has  been  dealt  with  and  put  away. 
John  would  have  us  begin  our  Christian  life  at  the  cross.  To  the  vision  of 
man's  need  the  highest  mountain  in  all  the  world  is  Calvary,  the  only 
mountain  that  rises  above  Sinai. 

2.  To  fellowship.  When  Jesus  asked  the  two  disciples  of  John,  "  What 
seekest  thou  ?  "  they  replied,  "  Where  dwellest  thou  ?  "  He  saith  unto  them, 
"  Come  and  see  ".  They  came  and  saw  where  He  dwelt,  and  abode  with 
Him  that  day.  The  first  impulse  of  a  regenerate  soul  is  to  be  with  Jesus. 
It  loves  the  book,  the  church,  the  home,  the  company  where  Jesus  is  wel- 
comed and  honored.  It  shuns  the  place  where  Jesus  would  not  be  at  home 
and  happy  in  His  surroundings.  It  yearns  to  be  with  Him  all  the  time. 
And  Jesus  responds  to  this  impulse  of  the  renewed  heart.  He  invites  us  to 
dwell  with  Him.  What  an  evening  of  fellowship  and  instruction  these  two 
disciples  must  have  had.  What  heart-burnings  of  love  they  must  have  felt ; 
what  raptures  of  joy;  what  inspirations  of  hope  as  He  revealed  to  them  His 
inner  self  and  unfolded  to  them  the  far-reaching  victories  they  were  to  gain 
through  Him.  Now,  what  they  had  for  one  day  we  may  have  every  day, 
for  He  said,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days  ".  He  invites  us  to  an  inti- 
mate and  perpetual  fellowship.  The  condition  is  that  we  go  with  Him  and 
not  assert  the  self-life  by  asking  Him  to  go  with  us.  Enoch  and  Noah  had 
a  good  time  walking  with  God,  and  much  of  our  unrest  comes  from  the  fact 
that  we  are  trying  to  induce  God  to  walk  with  us.  He  is  always  going 
in  the  right  direction,  and  He  always  dwells  in  the  right  place.  Let  us  seek 
His  way  and  walk  in  it ;  the  secret  place  where  He  dwells  and  abide  there. 
Such  constant  fellowship  is  worth  all  the  sacrifice  it  may  cost. 

3.  To  service.  After  the  day  with  Jesus,  Andrew  and  John  are  eager 
to  tell  others  about  Him.  Such  is  always  the  effect  of  fellowship  with 
Jesus.  It  gives  courage  and  enthusiam  in  soul-winning.  It  sends  us  to  our 
friends  with  warm  sympathetic  hearts.  It  gives  us  vigorous  faith.  There 
is  no  tremor  of  doubt  in  the  words  of  Andrew  to  Simon  :  "  We  have  found 
the  Messiah,  which  is  being  interpreted  the  Christ".  "And  he  brought 
him  to  Jesus  ".  Such  direct  personal  testimony  for  Christ  cannot  fail  to 
bring  our  friends  to  Jesus  when,  as  in  this  case,  it  has  in  it  the  fresh  glow 
of  a  present  experience.  If  Andrew  had  gone  to  Simon  and  told  him  an 
experience  ten  years  old,  it  would  have  had  little  effect.  I  can  imagine  that 
Andrew  had  in  his  face  a  glow  of  hope,  love  and  joy  like  the  shining  face  of 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  FLRST  DLSCLPLES.  47 

Moses  when  he  came  down  from  a  face-to-face  talk  with  God  on  the  mount. 
When  people  take  knowledge  of  us  that  we  have  been  with  Jesus,  they  are 
ready  to  hear  our  message  concerning  Him.  Secret  fellowship  is  the  source 
of  power  in  service. 

4.  To  transformation.  "  When  Jesus  beheld  him,  He  said,  '  Thou  art 
Simon  the  son  of  Jonah ;  thou  shalt  be  called  Cephas,  which  is  by  interpre- 
tation a  stone '  ".  As  soon  as  the  unstable  and  impulsive  Simon  is  brought 
to  Jesus,  our  Lord  begins  the  work  of  transforming  his  character.  The  son 
of  Jonah  has  the  nature  of  the  dove,  easily  frightened,  but  before  Jesus  gets 
through  with  him  he  shall  be  Cephas,  with  a  character  of  granitic  stuff, 
resisting  evil  and  strong  enough  to  be  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  God.  There 
seems  to  have  been  a  bit  of  the  dove  still  left  in  him  when  at  the  trial  of 
Jesus  he  took  fright  and  denied  his  Lord,  but  it  was  evidently  in  its  dying 
flutter,  for  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost  we  find  him  as  bold  as  a  lion  and  as 
unyielding  as  the  stones  of  Gibraltar.  His  first  view  of  Christ  begins  in 
him  this  transformation.  Simon  was  usually  talkative,  but  here  for  once  he 
has  nothing  to  say.  There  was  something  in  the  presence  of  Jesus  which 
awed  him  into  silence.  The  narrative  gives  us  words  from  John,  Andrew, 
Philip  and  Nathanael,  but  not  a  word  from  Simon.  He  is  too  full  of  thought 
and  emotion  to  speak.  He  simply  listens  to  the  sweetest  of  voices  and 
looks  lovingly  into  the  most  majestic  of  faces.  The  "altogether  lovely" 
One  has  thrown  a  charm  of  fascination  over  the  rough  fisherman.  There  is 
a  spiritual  mesmerism  to  which  Simon  yields  without  an  effort  at  resistance. 
He  has  found  not  only  the  Messiah  of  Israel  but  the  Master  of  men.  Now 
that  the  sun  is  in  the  heavens,  all  the  stars,  however  brilliant,  are  forgotten. 

There  has  begun  in  him  the  process  by  which  heavenly  character  is 
made.  John  says,  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but  we  know 
that  when  He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as 
He  is  ".  God  does  not  arbitrarily  bestow  perfect  character  in  heaven  ;  it  is 
made  by  the  process  of  seeing  Jesus  as  He  is.  This  process  is  clearly  given 
in  2  Cor.  3:18:  "  We  all  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  mirror  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  are  changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  as  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  ".  Beholding  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  of  God  gives  us  sight  with 
which  we  may  ever  afterward  see  Him  in  all  the  perfection  of  His  char- 
acter, and  "seeing  Him  as  He  is"  is  the  means  by  which  the  Holy  Spirit  trans- 
forms us  into  His  likeness.  The  process  with  Peter  was  slow,  because,  like 
the  rest  of  us,  he  was  often  more  inclined  to  look  at  himself  and  others  than 
at  Jesus,  and  the  transformation  was  thus  hindered.  But  Jesus  is  patient, 
and,  having  begun  the  good  work,  He  will  continue  it  until  He  shall  see  in 
us  His  own  image  and  be  satisfied. 

When  Andrew  brought  his  rough  swearing  brother  to  Jesus,  he  was 
doing  good  ethical  work.  x\  lecture  on  profanity  would  have  done  little 
good.  Doubtless  that  had  been  tried  more  than  once.  What  Simon  needed 
was  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  could  settle  the  problem  of  sin  for  him  by  mak- 
ing it  possible  for  him  to  get  rid  of  its  guilt  and  pollution  and  give  him  an 
ideal  that  would  inspire  him  to  nobler  living.  In  Jesus  he  found  both.  If 
we  would  reform  our  friends,  whose  bad  habits  are  a  grief  to  us,  let  us  bring 


48  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN, 

them  to  Jesus.  He  will  begin  with  them  at  once,  as  He  did  with  Peter,  the 
process  of  transformation,  and  will  sooner  or  later  make  them  not  only  nega- 
tively good,  enabling  them  to  give  up  bad  habits,  but  positively  good  in  the 
possession  of  Christian  graces.  The  merely  ethical  method  may  cast  out 
evil  spirits  and  leave  the  house  "  empty,  swept  and  garnished  ",  ready  for 
"  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked  than  himself  ",  so  that  the  last  state  is 
worse  than  the  first.  But  this  Christian  process  casts  out  the  evil  spirit  and 
fills  the  house  with  angels  of  light,  more  powerful  than  all  the  demons  of 
darkness  that  prowl  around,  seeking  entrance. 

5.  To  vision.  "Jesus  saw  Nathanael  coming  unto  Him,  and  saith  of 
him,  behold  an  Israelite  indeed  in  whom  is  no  guile  ".  Our  Lord  said  these 
words  of  Nathanael  in  such  a  way  that  Nathanael  heard  them.  If  we  have 
anything  good  to  say  of  young  converts,  it  will  not  hurt  them  to  hear  it. 
And  if  you  have  anything  bad  to  say,  it  ought  to  be  said  before  them  and 
not  behind  their  backs.  For  this  reason  I  do  not  send  applicants  for  bap- 
tism from  the  room  after  they  have  related  their  experience  in  order  that  all 
may  be  free  to  discuss  their  cases.  Let  them  remain  and  hear  what  is  said 
about  them.  If  it  is  good,  they  will  be  encouraged,  and  if  it  is  bad  they 
ought  to  hear  it  before  it  comes  to  them  second-hand  and  exaggerated,  as  is 
almost  certain  to  be  the  case.  Nothing  ought  to  be  said  about  anybody 
that  we  are  not  willing  for  them  to  hear.  Truly  happy  is  the  young  convert 
who,  like  Nathanael,  hears  words  of  commendation  from  the  lips  of  Jesus. 
He  has  a  foretaste  of  the  joy  with  which  he  will  hear  the  words,  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant  ". 

The  answer  of  Nathanael  shows  that  Jesus  had  won  not  only  his  respect, 
but  his  love  and  loyalty  :  "  Rabbi,  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God ;  Thou  art  the 
King  of  Israel".  As  if  to  say,  "Lord,  if  I  am  an  Israelite,  Thou  art  my 
King.  Here  is  the  scepter  and  crown.  Sit  on  the  throne  of  my  being  and 
reign  supreme  ".  The  reference  to  Israel  suggests  Jacob  and  his  ladder, 
and  our  Lord  uses  the  vision  of  Jacob  as  an  illustration  by  which  He  gives 
to  Nathanael  a  new  vision  of  Himself  as  "  Son  of  God  "  and  "  Son  of  man  ". 
"  Hereafter  ye  shall  see  heaven  open  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and 
descending  upon  the  Son  of  man  ".  In  other  words,  "  Nathanael,  in  calling 
Me  Son  of  God  you  have  given  the  top  of  Jacob's  ladder,  which  reached  to 
the  skies ;  let  me  give  you  the  bottom  of  the  ladder,  which  rests  upon  earth 
— Son  of  man.  I  am  both  human  and  divine.  In  My  deity  God  is  made 
accessible  to  you,  and  in  My  humanity  you  are  accessible  to  God.  As  God- 
man  I  am  the  medium  of  communication  between  heaven  and  earth — the 
Word  made  flesh.  Through  Me,  as  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man,  the  mes- 
sengers of  your  need,  your  praises  and  your  prayers  ascend  to  God,  and 
through  Me,  as  Son  of  man  and  Son  of  God,  the  messengers  of  God's  love 
and  mercy  descend  upon  you.  I  am  the  real  Jacob's  ladder,  which  makes 
not  an  occasional  but  a  constant  vision  of  the  open  heaven  and  an  unbroken 
communication  between  God  and  man  ". 

Such  a  vision  is  the  privilege  of  every  Christian,  and  the  secret  of  per- 
petual joy  and  victory  is  in  translating  the  vision  into  daily  experience. 
God  is  accessible  to  us  at  all  times.     He  hears  our  praises  and  answers  our 


THE  CALL  OF  THE  EIEST  DLSCLPLES.  49 

prayers.  He  delights  to  give  us  of  "  His  fullness  and  grace  for  grace." 
Through  Jesus  Christ  heaven  opens  toward  us  for  giving  and  receiving. 
God  offers  to  us  His  best,  and  it  is  fitting  that  we  should  give  to  Him  our 
best. 

While  Queen  Victoria  was  on  her  bed  of  sickness,  she  said  to  the  chap- 
lain at  her  side,  "  I  wish  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  would  come  in  glory 
before  I  die  ".  He  replied,  "  Why,  Your  Majesty,  do  you  wish  that  Christ 
would  come  before  you  die  ? "  "  Because  ",  she  answered,  "  I  can  think  of 
nothing  that  would  give  me  more  pleasure  than  the  privilege  of  giving  to 
Him  with  my  own  hand  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  and  India  ".  The  spirit 
of  Nathanael  and  of  Victoria  that  would  crown  Jesus  King  in  every  realm  of 
our  being  is  the  spirit  of  every  loyal  son  of  God,  and  Jesus  is  worthy  that 
every  day  should  be  a  coronation  day. 


*  '*  SONS  OF  GOD  ". 

(St.  John  1:9.) 

by  rev.  itloyd  av.  to]vikins,  s.  t.  d., 

Rector  of  Holy  Trinity  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

I  wish  to  congratulate  you,  dear  friends,  upon  these  conferences  and 
upon  selecting  for  your  study  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  for  St.  John's  Gospel 
has  been  attacked  more  than  any  other  of  the  Four  Gospels,  and  I  suppose 
it  has  been  attacked  because  it  is  preeminently  the  Gospel  of  believers.  I 
think  the  older  we  grow  the  more  we  occasionally,  almost  insistently,  go  to 
it  for  devotional  reading.  It  is  the  Gospel  which,  under  God's  guidance,  was 
written  for  the  church — for  the  members  of  the  church  It  is  most  theolog- 
ical in  some  aspects  of  it,  but  it  certainly  bears  very  especially  and  clearly 
upon  the  believer's  relationship  to  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  in  St.  John's  Gospel 
that  you  have  the  verse  which  is  the  verse  of  the  whole  Gospel — John  3:16: 
"  For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life  ".  It  is 
in  St.  John's  Gospel  that  you  have  that  marvelous  chapter,  the  fifteenth, 
declaring  our  relationship  to  Jesus  Christ,  our  union  with  Him,  and  that  we 
have  that  wonderful  prayer  of  our  Lord,  sometimes  called  the  sacramental 
prayer,  in  which  He  prays  that  there  may  exist  between  Himself  and  His 
disciples  the  same  relationship  that  exists  between  God  and  Himself. 

In  fact,  there  are  passages  which  make  us  almost  hold  our  breath  in 
reverence,  and  I  think  that  is  particularly  true  in  connection  with  the  sub- 
ject about  which  I  am  to  speak  to  you. 

"  To  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God  ". 

When  we  remember  that  in  this  very  Gospel  (as  Dr.  White  has  shown), 
Jesus  Himself  was  called  by  Nathanael  the  Son  of  God,  and  when  we 
remember  how  St.  John,  in  his  epistles,  so  wonderfully  refers  to  that  fact 
when  he  says,  "  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be :  but  we  know  that,  when  He  shall  appear,  we  shall 
be  like  Him ;  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  ",  then  we  realize  the  greatness 
of  the  message. 

"  That  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God ".  It  makes  us  fairly 
tremble  and  hesitate  to  think  any  such  honor  and  glory  should  be  given 
to  us.  Yet,  as  we  read  the  first  twelve  verses  of  chapter  one,  it  seems 
to  follow  so  naturally  as  the  result  of  God's  coming  into  this  world  that 
it  is  almost  logical.  Do  you  remember  how  it  reads?  "In  the  beginning 
was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 

"  The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 

"All  things  were  made  by  Him ;  and  without  Him  was  not  anything 
made  that  was  made. 


*  Delivered  at  the  First  Conference,  held  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  October  21,  1903. 

50 


SOA^S  OF  GOD.  SI 

"  In  Him  was  life  ;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men. 

"And  the  light  shineth  in  darkness;  and  the  darkness  comprehended  it 
not. 

"  There  was  a  man  sent  from  God,  whose  name  was  John. 

•'  The  same  came  for  a  witness,  to  bear  witness  of  the  Light,  that  all 
men  through  Him  might  believe. 

"  That  was  the  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world. 

"  He  was  in  the  world,  and  the  world  was  made  by  Him,  and  the  world 
knew  Him  not". 

Saddest  verses  in  the  Bible. 

"  He  came  unto  His  own,  and  His  own  received  Him  not. 

"  But  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  His  name  : 

"  Which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the 
will  of  man,  but  of  God  ". 

You  see  at  once  how  the  very  purpose  of  Christ's  coming  into  this 
world  was  that  we  might  be  the  sons  of  God.  St.  John  shows  in  the  verses 
I  have  just  quoted  that  the  love  of  God  was  so  great  that  He  made  it  possi- 
ble for  us  to  become  His  sons.  There  is  something  to  say  about  this  son- 
ship.  We  are  all  of  us  children  of  God  by  creation,  and  as  God's  sons  by 
creation  we  can  claim  something  from  Him.  We  may  reverently  say  that 
we  can  claim  from  God  a  way  of  redemption,  because  of  His  creation  alone. 
Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  we  have  willingly  fallen  away  from  Him, 
since  we  are  His  sons  by  creation  we  may  become  His  sons  by  adoption — 
by  re-creation. 

Hence  you  see  what  a  growth  there  is  in  our  relationship  to  God.  I  am 
God's  child  because  He  has  made  me.  I  am  God's  child  because  He  has 
remade  me,  through  Jesus  Christ.  And  yet,  you  notice  how  the  truth 
enters — we  are  all  God's  children  by  creation,  but  only  those  who  believe  in 
Him  have  received  the  power  to  become  His  sons  by  re-creation.  Dwell  a 
little  longer  upon  that  word — son.  Just  think  what  it  means ;  the  Son  of 
God !  It  means  a  great  deal  when  we  use  it — as  it  is  not  used  here  in  St. 
John's  Gospel — simply  as  referring  to  our  creation.  That  God  made  me, 
gives  me,  or  ought  to  give  me,  self  respect;  that  God  made  me,  gives  me,  or 
ought  to  give  me,  the  desire  to  struggle  against  all  that  is  evil ;  gives  me,  or 
ought  to  give  me,  a  vision  of  all  that  may  be  mine ;  gives  me,  or  ought  to 
give  me,  a  sense  of  responsibility  concerning  my  fellow  men,  concerning  the 
world  itself,  which  is  God's  world,  and  which,  because  it  has  fallen  from 
Him,  I,  His  son  by  creation,  am  bound  to  do  all  I  can  to  bring  back  to 
Him.  If  you  can  get  no  further  than  this,  that  you  are  His  son  by  crea- 
tion, you  have  gotten  a  great  distance.  And  I  sometimes  think  we  may 
make  a  mistake  in  taking  men  on  too  rapidly.  A  great  many,  because  they 
have  not  been  sufficiently  or  properly  instructed,  think  that  because  God  has 
made  them,  and  because  they  are  His  sons  by  creation,  all  of  these  rich 
results  necessarily  follow.  When  you  turn  to  the  "  sons  of  God  "  inter- 
preted by  "  re-creation  ",  how  much  more  wonderful  it  is  to  be  God's  son  ; 


52  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

to  be  admitted  to  His  fellowship  because  I  trust  Him  and  love  Him ;  and 
being  His  beloved  son,  to  be  admitted  more  and  more,  as  I  am  able  to  bear 
it,  into  the  mysteries  of  His  truth ;  to  be  made  more  and  more  the  object 
of  His  confidence;  to  be  made  more  and  more  acquainted  with  the  power- 
ful purposes  through  which  He  works ;  to  be  made  more  and  more  in  my 
own  being  after  His  image — converted  into  His  likeness — and,  at  last,  to  be 
permitted  to  enter  into  His  presence,  where  shall  be  revealed  the  very  acme 
of  glory. 

Remember  that  wonderful  verse  in  St.  John's  epistle. 

"  Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what 
we  shall  be :  but  we  know  that,  when  He  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like 
Him ;  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  ". 

If  any  man  had  written  these  words  without  inspiration  it  would  be 
blasphemy  to  speak  them ;  and,  as  it  is,  we  tremble  and  cover  our  faces, 
and  yet  that  is  what  being  sons  of  God  must  mean. 

Now,  I  want  you  to  think  of  the  way  in  which  this  sonship  of  God  by 
re-creation  is  granted  us.  I  shall  speak  of  the  power  afterwards.  I  wish  to 
speak  of  the  sonship  first. 

We  are  the  sons,  or  we  have  the  power  to  become  the  sons,  of  God. 
Evidently,  this  must  be  something  which  comes  not  in  a  moment  but  grad- 
ually. We  are  made  the  sons  of  God  by  creation  in  a  moment,  as  it  were, 
when  we  are  born  ;  by  the  very  fact  of  our  existence  we  are  God's  children. 
We  are  made  the  sons  of  God  by  re-creation  by  a  precise  power  to  become 
such — not  accidentally.  St.  John  afterwards  wrote  to  the  Christians — for  I 
think  we  may  take  it  that  his  epistles  were  addressed  to  the  Christians — 
"  beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God  ",  because  we  have  entered  into  the 
fullness  of  the  Christian  life.  It  is  only  after  years  of  experience  and  edu- 
cation that  we  enter  into  it.  St.  John  was  an  old  man,  and  he  felt  as  though 
those  to  whom  he  wrote  had  an  experience  like  his  own.  So  that  to  become 
sons  of  God,  we  are  not  suddenly  changed  either  physically  or  morally,  but 
we  enter  into  a  new  condition.  I  think  that  sometimes  those  who  hold  to 
the  Anglican  catechism  forget  the  true  meaning  of  its  words.  It  says  that 
we  are  made  members  of  Christ,  children  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
The  prayer-book  undoubtedly  means  here — for  we  are  told  that  it  teaches 
nothing  that  cannot  be  proved  by  Holy  Scripture— that  when  the  individual 
is  brought  to  the  blessed  gift  spoken  of  by  Christ  to  Nicodemus,  he  begins 
to  grow,  he  begins  to  become  the  son  of  God  by  adoption  and  re-creation. 
I  think  it  is  very  necessary  to  remember  that,  for  two  or  three  reasons.  In 
the  first  place,  we  feel  ourselves  utterly  unworthy  in  our  unregenerated 
state  to  assume  such  a  title  as  sons  of  God.  Secondly,  we  must  recognize 
that  the  grace  of  God  in  the  individual  heart  is  just  Hke  His  power  which 
worketh  in  the  world  :  it  works  gradually.  There  is  at  least  that  much  truth 
in  evolution  :  the  power  of  God  works  gradually.  Certain  persons,  we  are 
told  in  the  book  of  Acts,  were  in  the  process  of  being  saved.  So  it  is  with 
the  man  who  enters  into  this  state  whereby  he  may  become  the  son  of  Ciod  ; 
gradually  going  on  in  that  state  he  reaches  higher  perfection.  There  is 
something  very  beautiful  to  me  in  this  revelation  of  God  in  connection  with 


SO.VS  OF  GOD.  53 

our  growth.  I  go  on  more  and  more  clinging  to  Him,  trying  to  serve  Him 
and  becoming  more  and  more  His  son.  And  it  is  more  and  more  a  con- 
scious relationship.  It  is  not  a  state  merely.  It  certainly  is  not  only  a 
condition,  but  it  is  a  relationship ;  the  very  word  itself  implies  that. 

Take  the  illustration  of  my  boy.  My  boy  is  my  son  by  birth.  I  stand 
by  his  cradle  and  look  at  him  with  loving  eyes,  and  I  say,  "  My  boy,  my  > 
boy  ".  By-and-by  that  boy  grows  up,  and  he  begins  to  come  to  me  to  learn 
he  gains  confidence  in  me,  and  he  says,  "  Papa,  I  love  you  " ;  he  comes  to 
me  with  his  sins  and  says,  "  I  am  sorry  I  did  wrong " ;  he  comes  to 
have  a  trust  in  me,  and  my  heart  goes  out  with  a  deeper  and  ever  deeper 
fiow  of  love  for  him,  and  what  is  the  result?  By-and-by,  when  that  boy  has 
grown  up  to  wisdom,  and  the  strength  of  intelligence  is  reached — when  that 
boy  has  grown  to  a  position  where  he  can  enter  into  my  plans,  can  see  the 
plan  of  my  life  and  my  plans  for  his  life — then  I  hold  his  hand  and  look 
into  his  face  and  say,  "  My  boy,  my  son  ".  Can't  you  see  the  difference 
in  that  expression  from  the  day  when  I  stood  by  his  cradle  of  possibilities — 
not  yet  realized — and  the  day  when  I  stood  by  him  in  his  youth  and  recog- 
nized the  growing  strength  and  felt  those  bonds  which  through  the  years 
had  bound  us  closer  and  closer  ?  It  is  the  same  in  our  connection  with 
God  in  sonship.  He  puts  forth  the  decree  that  I  shall  enter  into  relation- 
ship with  Him,  and  He  gives  me  the  means  whereby  that  relationship  may 
be  made  ever  stronger  and  richer  and  purer,  so  that  I  may  become  more 
and  more  conscious  of  the  possibilities  of  that  relationship.  He  opens  the 
flood-gates  of  His  divine  love  and  care  for  and  interest  in  me,  as  I  am  able 
to  receive  it.  And  by-and-by  the  time  will  come  when  I  shall  be  like  Him- 
That  is,  when  I  ^^shall  have  proved,  through  my  loyalty,  through  my  love- 
but,  above  all  else,  through  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ,  my  willingness  to 
give  all  that  I  have  and  all  that  I  am  to  Him,  and  shall  have  reached  that 
state  of  consciousness  when  I  realize  that  it  is  not  I,  "but  Christ  in  me". 
Then  I  shall  be,  as  the  Lord  prays  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  St.  John — 
I  shall  be  one  with  Christ  even  as  Christ  is  one  with  God. 

Then,  again,  I  want  you  to  understand  that  this  sonship  is  a  relation- 
ship in  which  we  become  more  and  more  mtimate  with  God.  The  old  idea 
was  that  you  could  not  know  God.  The  old  idea  was  that  no  man  could 
see  God.  Indeed,  we  have  it  in  the  Gospels,  "No  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time  ".  Yet  we  have  it  in  the  beatitudes,  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart  for  they  shall  see  God  ",  and  I  think  this  beatitude  refers  to  this  life, 
not  some  future  life.  I  have  it  in  my  consciousness  that  I  have  been  re-cre- 
ated by  Jesus  Christ ;  I  have  it  in  my  consciousness  that  He  is  pouring 
more  and  more  of  His  grace  into  me,  because  I  am  willing  and  ready  that 
He  should,  and  so  I  enter  more  and  more  into  a  knowledge  of  God. 

And  there  we  come  to  what  is  sometimes  called  Christian  experience, 
which  is  a  very  important  thing,  and  which  sometimes,  oftentimes,  we  con- 
fuse, with  other  things  because  of  its  frequent  use.  By-and-by  the  Christian 
comes  to  a  position  where  he  can  say  "  I  know  ",  as  St.  Paul  said ;  where  he 
knows  that  God  is  his  father ;  where  he  knows  that,  notwithstanding  the 
contradictions  of  life,  God  is  working  out  a  glorious  ending. 


54  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

By-and-by  he  becomes  so  intimate  with  God  that  even  though  he  can- 
not understand  God's  working,  because  God  is  infinite  and  he  is  finite, 
nevertheless  he  is  conscious  of  God's  truthfulness,  and  he  works  in  connec- 
tion with  it.  I  go  on  my  work  tomorrow,  I  know  not  what  God  has  for 
me,  but  I  love  Him  so,  I  trust  Him  so  fully  and  I  know  so  well  how  He 
loves  me  and  cares  for  me,  that  I  know  whatever  comes  will  be  right :  I 
know  that  nothing  can  happen  because  God  is  ordering  all  things  for  my 
best  good,  and  consequently  for  His  great  and  eternal  glory.  So  He  comes 
into  a  practical  relationship  with  life.  You  cannot  live  a  great  life  as  you 
ought  to  live  it  unless  you  are  His.  In  your  life  tomorrow — I  care  not  what 
your  struggles  may  be  or  what  your  occupation  may  be — you  cannot  meet  the 
experiences  of  life,  you  cannot  meet  the  trials  of  life,  any  more  than  you  can 
intelligently  study  the  Word  of  God  unless  you  are  conscious  of  this  son- 
ship.  Why  ?  Because  it  is  only  to  the  son  that  God  can  reveal  Himself. 
It  is  only  to  the  man  who  has  willingly  entered  into  the  state  in  which  God 
reveals  Himself  to  him,  and  in  which  he  grows  more  and  more  into  the 
nature  of  God,  that  there  can  come  an  understanding  of  how  God  works,  so 
that  he  can  trust  himself  entirely  to  God,  and  do  everything  that  he  does  in 
God's  name.  That  is  what  the  apostle  undoubtedly  meant  when  he  said, 
"  Do  all  things  to  the  glory  of  God  ".  He  mentions  the  small  details  of  life 
which,  in  the  early  days,  were  counted  evil  in  themselves.  He  says, 
"  Whether  ye  eat,  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God  ".  That  is  the  beauty  of  the  Gospel,  that  it  leads  us  not  only  up  to 
the  infinite  mind  of  God,  but  into  the  kingdom  of  God  in  its  glory  and 
beauty. 

He  not  only  gives  me  that  glorious  vision,  but  He  sends  me  out  into 
the  struggle  of  the  world,  with  all  its  agonies,  with  all  of  its  friendships, 
with  all  of  its  losses,  and  makes  me  live  the  life  of  a  son  of  God ;  makes  me 
live  as  one  who  knows  that  God  is  working  with  him  ;  makes  me  live  as  one 
who  is  conscious  of  a  great  divine  power  working  behind  him.  It  is  not  a 
theological  declaration.  No  truth  is  true  until  it  is  applied,  and  no  truth  of 
God  can  stand  as  a  creed  until  it  has  entered  into  the  heart  of  the  individual 
who  repeats  the  creed.  So  you  cannot  know  what  the  sonship  of  God  is 
until  you  have  entered  into  this  power  in  your  own  lives. 

And  there  is  just  one  more  thought  I  want  to  bring  out  in  regard  to 
this  sonship.  It  is  the  way  in  which,  more  and  more,  the  man  gains  power 
himself  because  he  is  God's  son.  My  father,  let  us  suppose,  owns  some 
land.  He  is  away.  I  am  his  son.  Someone  comes  and  begins  to  trespass 
upon  that  land.  I  go  to  him  and  say,  "You  cannot  do  that,  sir".  "Why 
not  ?  '•'  he  cries  out,  "  Who  are  you.-* "  "  I  am  the  son  of  the  man  who  owns 
this  land".  And  he  at  once  recognizes  my  authority;  he  knows  that  I, 
being  the  son  of  my  father,  have  a  right  to  claim  that  he  shall  not  injure 
that  which  belongs  to  my  father,  a  right  to  protect  that  which  is  my  father's, 
because  my  father  and  I,  supposedly,  are  wholly  in  sympathy  and  our  rights 
are  common.  Now,  there  you  have  the  secret  of  human  power.  There  you 
have  the  difference  between  the  effort  of  a  man  to  be  good  in  himself,  with- 
out any  thought  of  God,  and  the  effort  of  a  man  to  be  good  because  he 


SOJVS  OF  GOD.  55 

knows  he  is  God's  son.  What  a  difference  there  is.  I  start  out  tomorrow, 
and  I  try  to  be  a  moral  man ;  I  try  to  make  the  world  better,  and  I  go  on  in 
my  own  strength  and — fail  absolutely.  I  go  out  tomorrow,  having  first 
knelt  down  and  acknowledged  my  sonship  and  asked  my  Father  to  give  me 
grace,  and  when  the  troubles  come,  when  I  desire  to  help  this  one  or  defend 
that  one,  when  I  stand  up  for  the  truth  or  speak  against  evil,  then  I  am  con- 
scious that  it  is  not  I  alone  but  God  and  I.  I  have  the  right  to  speak,  the 
right  to  do,  because  I  am  God's  son.  There  cannot  be  any  failure  in  such 
a  case.  Why.^  Because  God  is  back  of  the  man,  because  God  is  in  the 
man.  He  may  be  working,  probably  is  working,  after  a  diviner  plan  than 
the  man  can  comprehend  ;  He  probably  is  working  after  a  very  much  more 
mysterious  plan  than  the  man  could  understand  if  God  tried  to  reveal  it  to 
him.     But  God  and  he  are  working  together. 

Now,  turn  from  that  to  the  first  part  of  our  verse.  ^'■Power  to  become 
sons  of  God  ".  Oh,  never  forget  that.  You  cannot  rate  it  too  highly.  It 
makes  the  difference  between  a  human  and  a  divine  being.  It  makes  the 
difference  between  a  regenerated  and  unregenerated  being.  It  makes  the 
difference  between  one  who  looks  up  into  God's  face,  conscious  of  his  own 
unworthiness,  but  who  says,  "  My  Father  ",  and  a  man  who  goes  around 
and  believes  in  God  just  as  the  devil  believes  in  Him  and  trembles. 

Power.  "To  them  gave  He  power  ",  and  that  implies,  incidentally, 
does  it  not,  that  the  human  will  comes  in,  and  that  is  where  we  have  often- 
times made  a  great  mistake  in  connection  with  both  our  efforts  for  and  our 
preaching  of  Christianity.  We  have  not  thought  enough  of  the  will  which 
God  has  given  us.  I  like,  I  confess,  that  grand  old  controversy  which  used 
to  be  very  rabid  sometimes,  which  is  almost  forgotten  in  these  days :  the 
controversy  about  a  man's  free  will  and  God's  predetermination.  I  like  it, 
not  because  we  can  ever  solve  the  problem  therein  suggested,  but  because 
it  brings  out  the  fact  that  God,  in  making  man,  made  man  responsible. 
I  will  not  say  God  cannot,  because  I  will  not  say  that  God  cannot  do 
anything,  but  He  will  not  say  to  man  who  will  not  love  Him,  "  You  shall 
love  Me  ".  Why  ?  Because  He  respects  the  individual.  God  wants  a  vol- 
untary love.  I  don't  want  my  boy  to  love  me  because  he  is  afraid  not  to 
love  me,  nor  because  I  am  his  father.  I  don't  want  him  to  obey  me  because 
he  is  afraid  of  the  results  if  he  does  not  obey  me.  I  want  him  to  love  me 
because  he  can't  help  it.  I  want  him  to  do  what  I  ask  him  to  do  because 
he  wants  to,  because  he  loves  to  please  me.  God  has  made  us  free  agents 
in  that.     He  gave  them  "  power  to  become  ". 

Ah,  my  dear  friends,  it  is  easy  enough  to  stand  before  obstacles ;  it  is 
easy  enough  to  stand,  as  the  children  of  Israel  did  long  ago  on  the  shore, 
and  cry  out.  The  question  is  whether  you  have  any  will  in  yourself  to  be 
better  and  to  do  better,  to  overcome.  The  question  is  whether  your  will  is 
turned  for  or  against  righteousness,  whether  your  will  is  turned  towards  or 
away  from  God.  That  solves  the  very  primal  condition  of  the  religious 
nature.  Look  into  your  heart  tonight,  Christian  though  you  may  be,  and 
test  the  growth  of  your  sonship.  Do  you  will  to  will  those  things  which 
God  wills  ?     Or,  are  you  absolutely  indifferent,  with  no  idea  that  you  have 


56  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

anything  to  do  about  it,  saying,  "God  does  everything"?  I  like  the  pas- 
sage in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son,  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  where  the 
prodigal  says,  "  I  will  arise ".  There  was  his  personal  determination. 
The  father  standing  there  could  not  save  him  unless  he  was  willing  to  come 
back ;  but  as  soon  as  he  was  willing  to  come,  then  the  father  went  out  to 
save  him  and  to  redeem  him.  And  I  thank  God  for  this  very  declaration  in 
the  words  which  He  has  spoken  through  John,  because  it  respects  my  indi- 
viduality ;  because  it  makes  me  feel  that  anything  I  do,  I  do  of  my  free  will. 
How  was  it  with  the  poor  woman  who  touched  Christ's  garment?  She  had 
to  do  something.  She  said,  "  I  will  touch  the  hem  of  His  garment ",  and 
she  did  and  was  healed.  And  so  in  all  the  great  history  of  the  dealings  of 
our  Lord  with  men.  So  with  you  and  me  today.  There  is  a  great  mistake 
made,  I  think,  in  regard  to  the  relationship  of  the  human  will  to  God's  will. 
I  have  heard  ministers  say  they  are  two  different  things  and  they  come  into 
opposition,  and  there  is  the  cross.  I  don't  think  anything  of  the  kind.  My 
will  is  simply  to  get  into  parallelism  with  God's  will.  "  Grant  that  I  may 
will,  but  will  nothing  but  what  Thou  wiliest ".  That  is  a  voluntary  prayer. 
And  then  He  gives  "  power  to  become  ".  Now,  doubtless  it  makes  some  of 
you  a  little  startled  because  I  say  this.  Centered  first  of  all  in  the  indi- 
vidual. Here  is  the  glorious  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  minister  stands 
in  the  pulpit  and  proclaims  it  with  all  his  power,  that  God  is  willing  to  give  : 
but  the  declaration  cannot  do  anything  alone.  It  is  only  as  the  individual 
comes  forth  and  says,  "  I  will "  that  there  follows  a  result.  You  must  place 
yourself  in  the  right  condition  if  you  wish  to  become  the  sons  of  God.  You 
can't  do  anything  for  yourself ;  you  can't  manufacture  yourself,  or  remake 
yourself,  but  you  can  put  yourself  where  God  can  remake  you.  Oh,  these 
human  wills.  God  doesn't  break  them.  He  didn't  crush  Peter's  will.  He 
didn't  make  him  a  different  man  from  what  he  was,  but  He  put  a  new 
power  into  him.     He  wants  you  to  make  your  will  His. 

Secondly,  this  power  implies,  evidently,  the  work  of  Jesus  Christ.  You 
can't  become  God's  sons  save  through  Jesus  Christ.  "God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life  ".  Then,  again,  that  glorious 
verse  quoted  before,  "  Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed 
upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God  ".  Now  I  am  not  going 
into  any  long  theological  declaration,  although  I  think  it  would  be  intensely 
interesting,  of  the  way  in  which,  through  Jesus  Christ,  we  are  reconciled  to 
God ;  but  I  think  we  may  not  recognize  this,  that  when  I  have  gone  wrong 
and  am  miserable  and  wretched,  even  though  I  may  will  God's  power  to  help 
me,  I  need  some  manifestation  of  that  power  to  lift  me  up.  Some  have  said : 
**  You  don't  have  any  recognition  of  that  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son, 
do  you?"  I  answer  that  we  must  not  make  all  of  God's  parables  teach 
everything  of  God's  truth,  because  they  are  put  forward,  most  of  them,  to 
declare  some  portion  of  the  truth.  But  I  do  say,  that  even  in  that  parable, 
although  the  father  ran  out  and  welcomed  him  and  said  :  "  Thou  art  my  son  ", 
yet  the  son  had  to  be  cleansed  and  clothed,  and  shoes  put  upon  his  feet 
before  he  was  taken  into  the  house.     I  may  will  to  be  God's  son,  but  my  will 


SOjVS  of  god.  57 

is  nothing  without  Christ,  Who  makes  it  all  possible,  Who  takes  away  the 
error  which  covers  me,  Who  opens  up  the  road  by  which  I  must  go,  Who 
places  over  me  the  robe  of  His  divine  righteousness,  Who  presents  me  to 
God  as  His  child.  There  can  be  no  sonship  without  Jesus  Christ.  "  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God  ".  "To  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  Sons  of  God  ".  Oh,  that 
glorious  power  of  Christ !  Do  you  wonder  that  the  religion  which  expresses 
this  truth  has  been  called  Christianity?  Do  you  wonder  that  it  is  in  that 
Name  that  every  knee  shall  bow,  while  every  tongue  confesses  that  Jesus  is 
God  ?  Do  you  wonder  that  the  little  child  kneeling  at  his  mother's  knee, 
and  the  man  in  the  depths  of  the  struggle  of  life,  and  the  aged  just  about  to 
cross  the  river  of  death  cry  alike,  "  Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul  "  ?  Do  you  know 
that  He  makes  you  a  son  of  God  just  as  soon  as  you  are  willing  to  let  Him  ? 
Do  you  know  that  He  gives  you  ihe  power  by  which  and  through  which  you 
grow  day  by  day,  having  entered  into  this  new  relationship.''  Do  you  know 
that  He  gives  you  the  power  by  which  you  begin  to  understand  God  more 
and  more,  and  to  enter  into  the  mysteries  of  His  truth  and  of  His  service? 
Do  you  know  that  He  gives  you  the  power  whereby,  conscious  of  the  right 
of  the  Eternal  behind  you,  you  go  further  and  further,  from  victory  to 
victory?  Jesus,  the  Word  made  flesh  !  Jesus  upon  the  cross !  Jesus  exalted 
at  the  right  hand  of  God ! 

Again  I  want  you  to  notice  in  the  preceding  verse  and  in  the  first  part 
of  this  verse,  the  words  "  that  was  the  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world.  He  was  in  the  world  and  the  world  was  made  by 
Him,  and  the  world  knew  Him  not.  He  came  unto  His  own  ",  that  is,  His 
own  people  and  His  own  nation,  "  and  His  own  received  Him  not.  But  as 
mafiy  as  received  Him ^  to  them  gave  He  power".  Received!  Sometimes 
people  read  that  "believed".  Belief  is  a  glorious  thing.  As  Dr.  White  so 
helpfully  said  tonight,  it  is  the  trusting  of  yourself  to  God.  But  that 
receiving,  it  seems  to  me,  is  something  which  precedes  the  believing.  I  love 
that  old  prayer :  "  Take  my  heart,  oh  Jesus,  for  I  cannot  give  it  to  Thee, 
and  when  Thou  hast  it,  keep  it,  for  I  cannot  keep  it  for  Thee".  "  As  many 
as  received  Him"!  How  beautiful!  He  went  to  certain  villages;  they 
received  Him,  and  He  there  could  work  miracles.  He  went  to  other  villages ; 
they  there  received  Him  not,  and  He  could  there  do  no  mighty  work.  I 
receive  Him  first,  as  the  historic  personage,  the  Being  Who  once  lived  at 
such  a  time  and  whose  truth  has  conquered  the  world.  I  receive  Him  as  a 
divine  Being,  as  Canon  Row  says :  The  Man  Who  never  sinned,  thereby 
proving  His  divine  origin,  because  never  but  once  and  only  once  has  a  sin- 
less man  lived.  I  receive  Him  as  One  who  has  blessed  men  so  that  they 
could  die  without  fearing.  I  receive  Him  as  the  One  who  comes  into  my 
own  life  and  becomes  my  Christ,  my  Savior.  "  As  many  as  received  Him, 
to  them  gave  He  power  ".  First  you  will ;  then  the  power  of  Christ  result- 
ing from  your  will ;  and  then  your  receiving  that  Christ,  in  order  that  He 
may  give  that  which  you  are  willing  to  let  Him  give.  Isn't  it  a  wonderful 
truth?  You  see  how  this  growth  of  which  I  spoke  goes  on.  I  cry,  "  I  am 
nothing  of  myself,  but  I  do  hunger  for  Thee ;  I  do  more  and  more  thirst  for 


58  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Thee ! "  There  is  my  will.  Then  God  responds  to  that  will.  He  says : 
"  Behold,  I  am  here,  my  child  ".  He  stands  there  and  knocks,  and  when  I 
open  the  door  and  say,  "  Come  in  ",  He  enters.  That  goes  on  all  through 
life.  We  are  so  imperfect  that  we  have  to  renew,  as  it  were,  this  association ; 
not  renew  the  state,  but  keep  on  renewing  the  conditions.  I  love  that 
passage  in  St.  John  where,  in  speaking  to  Peter,  Christ  says:  "He  that  is 
bathed  needeth  not  save  to  wash  his  feet".  The  conditions  have  to  be  again 
and  again  renewed,  just  as  I  wash  my  hands  again  and  again  all  through  the 
day,  but  the  one  fact  remains,  being  done  once  for  all.  We  have  to  cry  out, 
"O  God,  I  need  Thee",  a  thousand  times  a  day.  And  God  says:  "I  am 
here,  my  child".  And  I  cry  out,  "Enter  in,  O  Lord,  enter  into  my  speech, 
enter  into  my  service  ;  what  I  do  is  nothing  without  Thee".  But  His  gift  to 
me  never  has  to  be  renewed. 

Again  ;  God  works  through  means.  I  am  His  child  by  creation,  and  it 
has  pleased  Him  that  my  body  and  my  mind  should  grow  by  the  use  of 
those  things  which  He  has  prepared.  I  eat,  I  sleep,  I  take  exercise,  I  go  in 
and  out  amongst  men,  and  thereby  my  physical  being  grows.  And  God  has 
ordained  exactly  the  same  method  whereby  my  spiritual  being  may  grow ; 
and  without  the  use  of  these  means,  my  dear  friends,  I  cannot  grow.  There 
you  have  the  practical  Christian  life  going  on  day  after  day.  I  must  pray. 
I  must  live  in  constant  companionship  with  God.  I  must  read  His  Book; 
it  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet  and  a  light  unto  my  path.  I  must  go  to  my  church 
and  worship,  for  He  has  promised  a  blessing  where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together.  I  must  use  what  are  ordinarily  called  "the  means  of 
grace  ".  John  brings  out  again  and  again  those  ordinances  of  grace.  He 
speaks  of  baptism.  He  speaks  of  the  Holy  Communion :  "  Do  this  in 
remembrance  of  Me".  And  as  we  go  on  using  these  means,  we  find  that 
the  sonship  becomes  richer  and  fuller,  and  God  becomes  more  willing  and 
able  to  pour  more  and  more  of  His  divine  power  into  us. 

I  want  you  to  realize,  my  friends,  that  this  power  to  become  the  sons  of 
God  is  something  which  is  of  us,  in  us,  and  through  us  by  the  influence  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit.  There  we  have  the  Three  Persons  in  the  Godhead 
working  together.  "  God  so  loved  "  ;  Christ  coming  that  we  might  be  saved ; 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  entering  in  that  the  growth  may  progress.  May  God 
grant  us  grace  to  realize  more  and  more  fully  in  our  lives  the  magnificent 
glory  that  is  ours !  And  God  grant  us  grace  at  the  same  time  humbly, 
lovingly  to  recognize  that  this  is  not  a  birth  which  comes  after  any  human 
fashion,  "  Which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of 
the  will  of  man,  but  of  God'\ 


'  "  FULL  OF  GRACE  AND  TRUTH  " . 

(St.  John  1:14.) 
by  rkv.  henry  s.  nash,  d.  d., 

Professor  ok  Nkw  Testament  Interpretation,  Episcopal  Theological  School, 

Cambridge,  Mass. 

The  text  I  am  to  study  is  a  single  verse.  But  at  the  risk  of  repeating 
what  may  have  been  already  said,  I  must  sum  up  the  thought  of  the  verses 
that  precede  it.  The  Prologue  of  the  Gospel,  the  first  eighteen  verses,  is  so 
compact,  so  solidly  thought  together  that  an  ox  team  could  not  draw  a 
sentence  from  its  place.     So  the  context  is  vital  to  the  text. 

The  Prologue,  at  this  point,  illustrates  the  working  of  the  author's  mind 
at  large.  He  has  been  accused  of  mental  monotony.  And  there  is  a  certain 
justification  for  the  charge.  To  a  singular  degree  he  is  one-thoughted.  His 
system  is  all  center.  He  is  like  the  man  in  our  Lord's  parable,  who,  finding 
the  pearl  of  great  price,  sold  all  that  he  had  and  bought  it.  So,  both  by 
reason  of  the  wider  context  as  well  as  by  reason  of  the  nearer  context  we 
must  gather  up  the  thought  of  the  Prologue  in  order  to  enter  this  verse  along 
the  line  of  the  author's  own  mental  motion. 

The  theme  is  the  divine  tragedy.  The  reality  of  God  has  entered  history 
and  men  lack  perception  of  it.  The  full  light  of  God's  mind  and  plan  of 
redemption  has  shone  forth,  and  'tis  as  if  the  sun  had  risen  in  all  its  beauty 
to  beat  vainly  against  the  obtuseness  of  men  born  blind.  The  life  of  the 
Son  of  God  has  been  lived  out  in  the  midst  of  the  chosen  people ;  and  His 
life  is  as  a  landscape  to  a  blind  man's  eye. 

The  Gospel  has  two  sides.  Under  one  aspect,  it  is  a  study  in  the  life 
of  Christ.  Under  the  other  aspect,  it  is  the  autobiography  of  apostolic  faith. 
The  author  is  writing  a  great  tragedy,  the  story  of  Israel's  unbelief.  At  the 
same  time  he  tells  us  how  a  few  were  led  into  belief,  how  the  Christ  educated 
a  little  body  of  disciples  and  friends,  leavening  them  with  His  life,  infusing 
into  them  His  mind,  till  at  last,  the  eyes  of  the  heart  being  opened,  they 
came  to  know  their  Master,  in  some  measure,  as  He  knew  Himself,  and  to 
think  after  Him  His  thoughts  about  God  and  man. 

Verse  5.  "  The  light  shineth  in  the  darkness  and  the  darkness  did  not 
perceive  and  apprehend  it ".  Had  John  known  Plato's  illustration  of  the 
men  who  lived  in  a  cave  and  saw  the  light  only  as  it  filtered  down  through 
their  obstinate  pride  and  tenacious  prejudices,  he  might  well  have  used  it 
here. 

Verse  11.  "  He  came  to  His  own  estate  "  in  history,  to  the  land  which 
God  had  chosen  for  the  stage  of  the  redemptive  life.  "And  His  own 
people  ",  His  kith  and  kin.  His  countrymen,  the  stewards  of  His  estate, 
"gave  Him  no  welcome  ". 


•  Delivered  at  the  First  Conference,  held  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  October  21,  1903. 

59 


6o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Verses  12  and  13.  "  But  to  all  those  who  gave  Him  welcome"  who 
surrendered  their  prejudices  into  His  keeping,  who  put  their  views  of  God 
and  man  into  His  hands,  "  He  gave  the  right  and  the  power  to  become  the 
children  of  God  ".  I  mean  says  John,  "  Those  who  believed  in  His  name  ", 
that  is,  those  who  accepted  His  view  of  life,  His  understanding  of  the 
national  hope  of  Israel,  His  revelation  of  God,  as  the  ultimate  truth  about 
God  and  man.  We  have  here  a  very  simple  and  intelligible  description  of 
the  mystery  of  the  New  Birth.  To  John  it  meant  admission  into  the  intimacy 
of  the  Saviour.  Friends  live  in  one  another's  life  and  mind.  The  new  born 
man  takes  Christ's  point  of  view  for  his  very  own,  and  so  enters  into  His 
purpose  and  His  power. 

Verse  14.  "The  Word  became  flesh".  The  term  Logos,  translated 
"  Word  ",  as  John  uses  it,  has  two  strains  in  its  pedigree, — the  Greek  and  the 
Hebrew.  To  the  Greek  the  Logos  is  the  outgoing  Reason  of  God.  To  the 
Hebrew  it  is  the  will  and  plan  of  God,  entering  history  to  guide  and  shape 
and  control  it.  Both  elements  are  in  the  Johannic  term.  But  the  Hebraic 
element  is  the  controlling  one.  The  Logos  is  the  full  expression  of  God's 
mind  and  heart  and  purpose  touching  man's  redemption. 

"The  Word  became  flesh  ".  Our  word  "  flesh"  cannot  translate  John's 
word.  No  one  can  study  the  Bible  long  and  earnestly  without  being  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  literal  translation  is  sometimes  the  worst  possible 
translation.  In  a  good  translation  we  must  convey  not  only  the  logic  of  the 
original,  but  its  emotion  and  colour.  Now  our  word  "  flesh  "  is  too  crassly 
physical  to  convey  the  feeling  of  the  original.  Let  us  then  make  use  of  para- 
phrase and  say  "God's  Word,  His  Self-expression,  took  unto  itself  a  perfect 
and  real  humanity  ". 

Thus  and  thus  alone  could  God's  thought  about  men  come  within  reach 
of  the  everyday  man.  The  Incarnation,  to  us  who  deeply  and  devoutly 
believe  in  it,  is  the  only  possible  method  whereby  God's  whole  mind  can  be 
made  intelligible  to  the  commonest  man.  And  we  think  that  the  alternative 
is  a  speculative  mysticism,  by  means  of  which  the  man  highly  favoured  by 
talents  and  leisure  may  reason  and  train  himself  into  intimacy  with  God's 
innermost  thought.  But  we  Christians  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  a  reve- 
lation of  God  that  belongs  to  the  scholar  and  the  speculator.  We  are 
common  folk  ourselves.  We  have  cast  in  our  lot  with  the  common  folk. 
And  to  us  the  Incarnation  is  the  necessary  means  and  method  whereby  God 
puts  His  secrets  within  the  reach  of  the  man  in  the  field  and  the  man  on  the 
street. 

"  And  dwelt  amongst  us  " }  that  is,  in  the  midst  of  the  chosen  witnesses, 
the  men  who  through  intimacy  with  Jesus  had  their  eyes  opened  to  the 
meanings  of  His  being  and  work.  It  was  through  their  faith  in  Him,  their 
spiritual  perception  of  His  nature  and  His  mind  that  the  Son  of  God  effected 
a  lodgment  in  human  consciousness  for  His  revelation  of  the  Father. 

"  And  we  gazed  upon  His  glory  ".  It  is  the  eager  and  attentive  look  of 
faith  that  John  has  in  mind.  Not  the  casual  look  of  the  passer-by,  or  the 
indolent  glance  of  the  idly  curious,  but  the  penetrating  look  of  a  man  whose 
mind  is  bound  to  a  supreme  object.     The  man  in  the  street  looks  at  the 


FCLI.  OF  GRACE  AND  TRUTH.  6i 

starry  heavens.  The  astronomer  gazing  at  them,  puts  his  soul  into  his  look. 
So  the  chosen  men,  drawn  by  the  Christ,  put  heart  and  soul  into  their  study 
of  Him.  For  this  is  the  deeper  meaning  of  faith  ;  it  is  the  steady  attention 
of  man  to  the  supreme  object  of  spiritual  niterest,  an  eager  and  tireless  and 
piercing  perception  which  will  not  rest  until  it  has  gone  to  the  heart  of  its 
subject. 

"  His  glory  ".  Our  word  "glory  "  does  not  fully  or  happily  translate  the 
Greek.  The  original  involves  the  thought  of  power  and  majesty.  Read  the 
Second  Isaiah.  He  throws  a  clear  light  on  the  larger  meaning  of  the  word. 
God's  glory  is  His  mastery  over  history,  manifested  through  the  crisis  of 
Israel's  experience,  the  clear  outshining  of  His  will  and  purpose  asserting 
complete  control  over  the  nations.  So,  the  glory  of  the  Christ  is  His  master- 
fulness. To  the  unbeliever  He  was  a  bankrupt  Galilean.  To  the  believer 
He  was  the  embodied  might  of  God. 

Again  the  original  contains  something  of  the  meaning  of  our  word 
beauty.  Plato  described  beauty  as  the  visibleness  of  truth.  John  describes 
the  Christ  as  the  visibleness  of  the  mind  and  heart  of  God.  Christ  is  the 
synonym  of  (iod  in  terms  of  human  experience.  He  is  the  beauty  of  God. 
Through  the  Incarnation  the  being  of  God  penetrates  history,  embodying 
itself  in  humanity.  Thus  it  becomes  compelling,  irresistible,  even  as  noble 
beauty  is  irresistible.  So,  to  the  eye  of  faith,  of  spiritual  perception,  the 
Christ  is  the  embodiment  of  the  mastery  and  beauty  of  God. 

"  The  mastery  and  beauty  as  of  an  only-begotten  Son  ".  In  the  Christ 
(iod  speaks  His  deep  and  clear  and  final  word  regarding  the  mystery  of  our 
life  and  His  life.  "He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father".  God's 
Son  fully  represents  God  to  our  heart  and  conscience.  Touching  Him  we 
touch  the  ultimate  moral  and  spiritual  meaning  of  things. 

"  Full  of  Grace  '".  Great  words,  incessantly  used,  grow  stale.  They  are 
no  longer  instinct  with  expression.  And  it  is  a  waste  of  energy  on  our  part 
to  refuse  to  recognize  this  law  regarding  words.  So  we  would  better  disuse 
the  word  "grace"  for  a  time  and  substitute  a  word  or  phrase  which  shall 
convey  the  thrill  of  the  original.  Both  Paul  and  John  meant  by  grace  the 
insetting  energy  and  love  of  God.  Human  consciousness,  standing  before 
its  tasks,  is  empty  of  power  to  meet  them,  unless  God  comes  to  our  aid. 
Life,  beset  by  problems  it  cannot  solve  and  debts  it  cannot  pay,  is  like  a  cove 
which  the  tide  has  long  forsaken.  The  mud  flats  lie  bare.  The  rock-weed 
turns  brown.  But  the  tide  returns.  The  cove  learns  afresh  the  great  lesson 
that  the  universe  cares  for  it.  Irresistible  cosmic  forces  lift  the  sea  and 
drive  its  waters,  in  all  their  strength  and  recreating  power,  into  the  forsaken 
cove.  And  now  all  is  changed.  The  cove  tingles  and  glows  with  the  sense 
of  its  kinship  to  the  universe  and  the  confident  consciousness  of  its  dignity. 
So  with  the  heart  seeking  salvation.  If  it  relies  upon  itself,  the  tide  goes 
out.  The  flats  lie  bare.  Human  helplessness  is  clearly  revealed.  But  the 
Christ  presents  Himself  to  our  attention.  Through  faith  we  enter  into  His 
mind  and  nature  and  meaning.  And  lo  !  a  flood  of  divine  energy  sets  into 
the  soul.     Life  is  filled,  bankfull,  with  the  consciousness  of  power  and  peace. 


62  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

"  Full  of  grace  and  truth  ".  Once  more  we  must  depart  from  the  estab- 
lished translation  if  we  would  catch  the  full  force  of  the  original.  Our  word 
truth,  noble  as  it  is,  leans  too  much  to  the  subjective  side  of  experience. 
We  have  another  word,  reality,  inseparable  from  truth,  that  may  serve  us 
better.  John  found  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  reality  of  all  the  promises  that 
God  had  given  to  Israel.  And  thus  was  he  saved  from  sin  and  doubt  and 
despair.  Only  reaUty  can  save  us.  The  reality  of  human  goodness  saves 
us  from  despair  about  humanity.  We  touch  the  goodness  of  the  saints  and 
our  confidence  in  our  race  is  restored.  Even  so  we  touch  the  Christ  and, 
in  touching  Him,  touch  the  very  mind  and  being  of  God.  He  is  the  divine 
reality,  the  pledge  and  assurance  of  God's  power  to  keep  all  the  promises 
which  He  hath  given  us. 

Finally,  would  we  enter  deep  into  this  great  text,  we  must  think  together 
two  things  which  we  have  been  in  the  habit  of  holding  more  or  less  apart. 
The  men  of  the  Bible,  both  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments,  instinctively 
connected  the  thought  of  individual  salvation  with  the  thought  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  The  prophet  never  spoke  about  his  perfection  without  speak- 
ing at  the  same  time  about  the  consummation  of  history.  The  apostles  never 
preached  or  wrote  about  their  own  immortality  without  at  the  same  time 
publishing  the  news  of  the  returning  Christ. 

Therefore,  to  enter  fully  into  the  text  before  us,  let  us  imagine  that  we 
have  bent  our  whole  strength  to  founding  the  Kingdom  of  God  amongst 
men,  and  that  the  terribleness  of  the  task  has  robbed  us  of  our  confidence 
and  courage.  It  cannot  be  done,  we  begin  to  say.  As  individuals  we  may 
be  saved.  God's  mercy  will  take  us  through  death  into  eternal  life.  But 
that  God's  power  and  mercy  can  lift  our  race  and  nation  to  the  level  of  His 
mind  and  plan,  this  is  too  hard  to  be  believed. 

Yet  this,  nothing  less,  is  the  faith  that  the  Saviour  imparts  to  us.  He 
brings  God's  being  and  mind  close  to  our  consciousness  and  conscience. 
His  revelation  of  God  is  not  made  to  the  mystic,  the  scholar  and  the  monk. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  made  in  the  very  midst  of  us.  The  Word  of  God  takes 
upon  itself  our  humanity  and  dwells  among  us.  Through  the  incarnate  Word 
the  divine  being  and  purpose  come  upon  us  with  irresistible  force  to  save  from 
disheartenment  and  despair.  The  beauty  of  Christ  is  as  compelling,  as  little 
to  be  escaped  from  or  disbelieved  in,  as  the  beauty  of  the  dawn  of  a  day  in 
early  June.  The  eye  makes  a  love-match  with  the  sun,  and  lo !  the  wonder 
and  splendor  of  the  visible  world.  So  the  eye  of  the  heart,  through  our  dis- 
covery of  the  Christ,  makes  a  love-match  with  the  being  and  beauty  of  God. 
One  cannot  doubt.  One  cannot  falter.  He  joyously  surrenders  himself  to 
an  unconquerable  faith  in  humanity.  "The  Word  took  upon  Himself  our 
humanity  and  dwelt  in  the  midst  of  us.  And  we  gazed  upon  His  beauty  and 
splendor,  the  splendor  as  of  one  who  is  the  only  Son  of  His  Father,  full  of 
saving  power  and  convincing  reality  ". 


*THE  MIRACLE  AT  CANA 
With   an    attempt   at   a   Philosophy  of    Miracles. 

St.  John  2  :  i-ii.) 

by  rkv.  augustus  h.  strong,  id.  d.,  i^l.  r>.. 

President  of  Rochester  Theological  Semin/^ry,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

This  Fourth  Gospel  was  written  long  after  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke. 
It  was  intended  as  a  supplement  to  them.  The  Synoptics  give  us  the  main 
facts  of  Jesus'  life  and  teaching,  his  works,  his  death,  his  resurrection. 
This  Gospel  gives  us  the  explanation  of  the  facts,  in  the  eternity,  the  person- 
ality, the  deity  of  Christ  himself.  It  presupposes  the  previous  Gospels  and 
builds  upon  them,  yet  it  adds  but  few  facts  to  those  which  they  relate.  The 
miracle  of  Cana  is  the  first  miracle  that  Jesus  wrought,  and  it  gives  the  rule 
and  type  of  all  his  miracles.  The  purpose  of  it  is  intimated  when  the  evan- 
gelist tells  us  that  "this  beginning  of  his  signs  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee, 
and  manifested  his  glory  ". 

That  word  "glory  "  takes  us  back  to  the  first  chapter  of  the  Gospel,  and 
we  shall  better  understand  the  miracle  if  we  consider  the  place  which  it 
occupies  in  the  Gospel  as  a  whole.  True  to  his  purpose  of  explanation, 
John  begins  with  a  thesis  or  proposition  which  he  proceeds  to  demonstrate. 
He  solves  all  the  problems  of  the  Synoptics  by  boldly  asserting  at  the  very 
start  that  the  eternal  Word  of  God  has  been  manifested  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
It  is  an  argument  from  the  divine  to  the  human,  as  John's  first  Epistle  is  an 
argument  from  the  human  to  the  divine.  The  argument,  however,  is  de- 
ductive rather  than  inductive.  It  propounds  a  principle  and  then  proceeds 
to  point  out  the  operation  of  it.  It  declares  Christ  to  be  nothing  less  than 
Deity  revealed,  and  then  shows  that  this  necessarily  makes  him  not  only 
the  Christ  for  whom  the  Old  Testament  had  prepared  the  way,  but  also  the 
Son  of  God  who  has  wider  relations  as  Lord  of  the  Universe  and  Savior  of 
mankind. 

The  Synoptics  had  been  content  to  trace  Jesus'  origin  back  to  Abraham 
and  to  Adam.  The  Fourth  Gospel  asserts  that  before  Abraham  was  born, 
Christ  already  was;  nay,  it  maintains  that  Christ  was  the  Creator  not  only 
of  Abraham  but  of  all  humanity.  It  goes  even  further  and  holds  that  Christ 
is  God's  only  medium  of  communication  and  activity;  he  is  the  preserver 
as  well  as  the  creator  of  all,  and  whatever  has  come  into  being  is  life  only 
in  him.  Since  he  is  the  life  of  the  universe,  he  can  be  its  light,  and  all 
knowledge  of  God  and  of  truth  proceeds  from  him.  Christ  is  the  only 
Revealer  of  God.  He  has  been  revealing  God  throughout  all  human  his- 
tory. The  darkness  of  sin  has  not  been  able  to  overcome  or  suppress  his 
light,  even  among  the  heathen.     But  the  incarnation  has  concentrated  his 

*  Delivered  at  the  Second  Conference,  held  at  the  Mathewson  Street  Methtxlist  Episcopal  Church, 
November  ii,  iqo3. 

63 


64  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

rays.  Better  even  than  Moses  and  the  Law  are  the  grace  and  truth  revealed 
in  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

There  is  opposition  to  Christ,  but  this  very  opposition  is  a  proof  of 
Christ's  deity.  Sin  must  resist  holiness  ;  selfishness  must  resist  love.  Holi- 
ness and  love,  however,  will  attract  to  themselves  their  like.  There  will  be 
increasing  faith  on  the  part  of  some,  though  there  is  increasing  unbelief  on 
the  part  of  others.  Hence  this  Gospel  is  the  record  of  two  opposing  ten- 
dencies. God's  self-mapifestation  in  Christ  stirs  up  hatred  that  brings  the 
Savior  to  the  Cross,  but  it  also  awakens  love  that  ensures  the  triumph  of 
his  kingdom.  Side  by  side  with  the  growing  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
Jews  is  the  growing  devotion  of  Christ's  disciples.  They  have  every 
worldly  example  and  inducement  to  forsake  him.  When  they  do  yield  to 
his  claims  and  recognize  his  authority,  the  victory  is  won,  the  demon- 
stration is  complete,  the  thesis  is  proved.  And  this  point  is  reached  when 
Thomas,  the  most  skeptical  of  the  apostles,  is  moved  after  Jesus'  resurrec- 
tion to  bow  at  his  feet  and  cry:  "My  Lord  and  my  God!"  This  is  the 
proper  end  of  the  Gospel,  and  all  that  follows  in  the  last  chapter  is  only  a 
supplement,  designed  to  show  why  it  was  that  John's  service  upon  earth 
lasted  so  much  longer  than  Peter's. 

The  progressive  revelation  of  Christ's  glory — this  is  the  central  theme 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  The  first  chapter,  in  which  the  thesis  is  stated  and 
the  witness  of  John  the  Baptist  is  given,  is  naturally  folloAved  by  the  second 
chapter,  in  which  Christ  manifests  his  glory,  first  by  turning  water  into 
wine,  and  secondly  by  driving  the  traders  out  of  the  temple.  There  is  an 
organic  connection  between  the  first  chapter  and  the  second  which  forbids 
us  to  regard  the  sublime  declarations  of  the  first  chapter  as  of  later  author- 
ship. The  glory  is  declared  in  chapter  one ;  the  glory  is  manifested  in 
chapter  two.  John,  the  protector  and  adopted  son  of  Mary  the  Virgin,  is 
the  natural  custodian  and  narrator  of  the  miracle  of  Cana — a  miracle 
wrought  within  a  family  circle,  and  therefore  either  unknown  to  the  other 
evangelists,  or  seeming  to  them  outside  the  range  of  Jesus'  official  ministry 
— an  evidence  that  this  Fourth  Gospel  had  John  for  its  author. 

That  this  beginning  of  miracles  was  wrought  in  so  humble  a  sphere  is 
quite  of  a  piece  with  the  general  plan  of  Christ — his  kingdom  did  not  come 
with  observation.  He  was  not  born  at  Rome,  but  at  Bethlehem  ;  his  crown 
was  not  of  gold,  but  of  thorns.  He  shows  us  what  true  glory  is ;  self-abne- 
gation reveals  God  best ;  to  him  the  cross  was  a  lifting  up.  Not  among 
"the  people",  or  "the  world",  wa:^  this  wonder  performed,  but  in  the 
narrow  circle  of  the  family.  Though  he  had  just  come  from  his  baptism 
into  death  and  from  his  struggle  with  infernal  powers  in  the  wilderness, 
he  begins  his  ministry  with  no  sounding  of  trumpets  or  clangor  of  arms. 
Instead  of  this,  he  enters  sympathetically  and  joyously  into  the  humble 
and  common  life  of  men,  helping  the  poor,  increasing  their  joy,  consecrat- 
ing their  marriage. 

The  simplicity  of  the  story  carries  conviction  of  its  truth.  The  late 
arrival  of  Jesus  and  of  his  newly  chosen  disciples  increased  unexpectedly 


THE  MIRACLE  AT  CAN  A.  65 

the  number  of  the  guests.  The  mother,  who  had  been  already  on  the 
ground,  perceived  that  the  resources  of  the  household  were  exhausted 
and  that  the  married  pair  were  exposed  to  embarrassment.  With  expecta- 
tions, long  suppressed,  but  newly  awakened  by  reports  of  the  Baptist's  recog- 
nition of  her  Son  at  the  Jordan,  expectations  of  some  revelation  of  his 
power,  she  whispered  to  him  that  "they  have  no  wine".  It  is  an  intrusion 
of  her  motherly  influence  into  a  sphere  that  is  above  her.  Jesus  gently 
puts  aside  all  authority  but  that  of  his  mission  and  of  the  God  who  sent 
him.  But  at  the  same  time  he  shows  that  Mary's  expectations  were  not 
irrational,  for  he  furnishes  wine,  and  in  such  abundance  that  it  serves  as 
a  symbol  of  the  royal  generosity  of  the  gifts  of  God. 

Why  should  we  think  of  the  story  as  merely  a  parable  ?  All  interpreta- 
tions that  ignore  the  miraculous  element  are  even  more  far  fetched  and 
incredible  than  the  miracle  itself  would  be.  "  Jesus'  conversation  was  so 
entertaining  that  the  guests  said  :  What  good  wine  we  have  had  !  "  All  this 
is  to  contradict  the  plain  teaching  of  the  narrative.  The  evangelist  evi- 
dently intended  to  describe  a  miracle.  The  testimony  of  the  servants  shows 
what  was  in  the  jars;  the  testimony  of  the  ruler  of  the  feast  shows  what  it 
has  become.  The  "  filling  to  the  brim  "  has  no  meaning,  unless  it  is  meant 
that  the  contents  of  all  the  six  water-pots  was  changed  to  wine.  The  very 
superfluity  of  the  provision  was  necessary  to  justify  the  solemn  conclusion 
of  the  account :  "  This  beginning  of  miracles  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee, 
and  manifested  his  glory:  and  his  disciples  believed  on  him  ". 

What  was  this  glory,  which  the  miracle  made  manifest  ?  It  was  three- 
fold, and,  in  each  of  its  three  aspects,  it  had  to  do  with  nature,  and  with 
Christ's  relation  to  nature.  It  was,  first  of  all,  the  glory  of  Christ  as  the 
Life  of  Nature.  We  constantly  tend  to  an  atheistic  and  unchristian  view  of 
nature.  We  think  of  it  as  self-originated,  as  sufficient  to  itself,  as  indepen- 
dent of  God.  This  miracle  shows  us  on  the  contrary  that  nature  is  only  the 
expression  of  the  divine  mind  and  will,  and  that  this  divine  mind  and  will  is 
the  mind  and  will  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  who  created  the  universe  has  not 
abandoned  the  universe.  Our  gospel  designates  Christ's  creative  activity 
not  by  the  preposition  ttpo^  "by",  but  by  the  preposition  dia,  "through". 
Creation  is  not  the  work  of  an  absent,  but  of  a  present,  Christ.  And  so  with 
preservation.  Only  through  his  constant  activity  do  the  forces  and  laws  of 
the  universe  maintain  their  existence.  Matter  is  not  dead  but  living,  and 
it  is  Christ  who  upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power.  And  so  we, 
who  believe  in  Christ, 

"  Behind  creation's  throbbing  screen 
Catch  movements  of  the  great  Unseen  ". 

If  all  that  has  come  into  being  is,  as  our  gospel  says,  "  life  in  him  ",  then 
nature  is  plastic  in  the  hand  of  Christ.  His  will  is  a  free  will.  He  is  not 
an  Ixion,  bound  to  nature's  wheel.  He  is  nature's  Lord.  Hence  it  follows, 
secondly,  that  the  glory  which  this  miracle  manifests  is  the  glory  of  Christ 
as  the  Ennobler  of  Nature.  He  is  not  the  victim  of  a  past  process.  He 
adds  to  the  process,  and  the  successive  additions  from  his  living  energy  are 


66  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  secret  of  evolution  ;  indeed,  no  growth  or  progress  is  conceivable,  until 
we  take  into  account  some  intelligent  and  beneficent  agent  behind  or  within 
the  process,  who  is  reinforcing  and  guiding  it  to  a  preordained  and  rational 
end.  If  all  growth  and  progress  everywhere  is  the  result  of  his  activity, 
why  should  we  hesitate  to  recognize  his  working  here?  In  this  miracle  he 
simply  shows  the  inner  possibilities  of  nature,  since  it  is  under  his  control. 
He  can  subject  it  to  the  needs  of  man.  The  turning  of  water  into  wine  is 
a  prophecy  of  the  transformation  of  this  mortal  body  into  the  spiritual  body, 
and  of  the  coming  of  the  new  heaven  and  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteous- 
ness. 

For  this  glory  is  the  glory  of  Christ,  not  simply  as  the  Life  of  Nature, 
and  as  the  Ennobler  of  Nature,  but  as  the  Interpreter  of  Nature.  All 
Christ's  miracles  were  signs  of  something  higher  than  themselves.  This 
Fourth  Gospel  is  especially  concerned  to  point  out  the  symbolism  of  Jesus' 
works.  He  opens  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  to  show  that  he  is  the  Light  of 
the  World ;  he  multiplies  the  loaves,  to  show  that  he  is  the  Bread  of  Life ; 
He  raises  the  dead,  to  show  that  he  lifts  men  up  from  the  death  of  trespasses 
and  sins.  The  universe  is  moral  and  religious  at  its  core.  The  progress  is 
a  progress  toward  the  good,  the  better,  the  best.  Present  commonness, 
and  even  imperfection,  is  no  measure  of  the  final  result.  He  who  made  the 
world  is  in  the  world,  to  counteract  the  evil  and  to  cherish  the  good. 
Want,  the  effect  of  sin,  is  to  be  done  away.  Separation  and  isolation, 
such  as  an  accusing  conscience  brings  about,  are  to  give  place  to  a  holy 
society.  Love  and  joy  are  to  prevail,  such  love  and  joy  as  springs  from 
virtue  and  the  fear  of  God.  All  this  is  to  begin  in  humble  spheres  and 
from  them  to  spread  through  all  the  world.  Water  is  but  the  basis  and 
foundation  for  wine,  and  the  world  that  now  is  is  but  the  preparation  for 
the  world  that  is  to  come. 

But  we  cannot  leave  this  first  miracle  without  a  further  consideration 
of  the  philosophy  of  miracles  in  general.  We  must  grant  that  the  old  con- 
ception of  the  miracle  as  a  violation  or  suspension  of  natural  law,  has  been 
superseded  by  a  new  conception  of  the  miracle,  as  belonging  to  a  higher 
order  of  nature — an  order  previously  existing  indeed,  but  unknown  to  men 
before.  Miracle,  then,  is  like  the  eclipse  of  the  sun,  whose  rareness  attracts 
attention,  but  is  not  unnatural;  like  the  cathedral  clock,  whose  bell  rings 
only  at  the  advent  of  a  new  century ;  like  the  action  of  the  calculating 
machine,  which  presents  to  the  observer  in  regular  succession  the  series  of 
units  from  one  to  ten  million,  but  which  then  makes  a  leap  and  shows,  not 
ten  million  and  one,  but  a  hundred  million.  The  extraordinary  and  unique 
may  nevertheless  be  the  operation  of  a  law  of  nature.  The  blossoming  of 
the  century  plant  is  something  very  unlike  its  former  flowerless  condition  ; 
no  human  being  may  ever  have  seen  it  blossom  before  ;  yet  the  provision 
therefor  is  in  the  plant  from  the  beginning. 

The  burning  of  the  Windsor  Hotel  in  New  York  City  is  thought  to 
have  been  due  to  the  gradual  charring  of  the  woodwork  and  to  superheated 
steam  pipes.     The  temperature  rose  imperceptibly,  until  the  sudden  addition 


THE  MIRACLE  AT  CAN  A.  67 

of  a  fraction  of  a  degree  changed  heat  into  flame.  The  ellipticity  of  the 
earth's  orbit  might  go  On  increasing  by  regular  gradations  until  centrifugal 
force  overbalanced  the  centripetal,  and  the  earth  from  being  a  planet  might 
suddenly  become  a  comet,  yet  this  change  might  be  perfectly  natural. 
There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  rhan  are  dreamt  of  in  the 
philosophy  of  the  ordinary  scientist.  Now  miracle  in  a  similar  manner  may 
be,  and  probably  is,  the  operation  of  a  law  hitherto  unknown  to  men,  yet 
entirely  within  the  range  of  natural  forces,  when  once  these  natural  forces 
are  understood. 

I  say,  when  once  these  natural  forces  are  fully  understood.  But  these 
natural  forces  are  never  fully  understood  until  they  are  recognized  as  divine. 
For  matter  is  really  spirit,  and  nature  is  only  another  name  for  God.  The 
laws  of  nature  are  the  habits  of  God.  It  is  not  true  that  God  is  the  author 
of  the  miracle  only  in  the  sense  that  he  instituted  the  laws  of  nature  at  the 
beginning,  and  provided  that,  at  the  appropriate  time,  miracle  should  be 
their  outcome.  This  view  fails  to  recognize  in  the  miracle  any  immediate 
exercise  of  will.  It  also  regards  nature  as  a  mere  machine,  which  can 
operate  apart  from  God — a  purely  deistic  method  of  conception.  If,  how- 
ever, we  interpret  nature  dynamically,  rather  than  mechanically,  and  regard 
it  as  the  regular  working  of  the  divine  will,  instead  of  the  automatic  action 
of  a  machine,  we  may  regard  miracle  as  a  perfectly  natural  phenomenon, 
while  yet  we  see  in  it  the  action  of  a  present  and  personal  God.  There  is 
no  such  hard  and  fast  line  between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  as 
some  apologists  have  imagined.  With  the  qualifications  already  suggested, 
we  may  adopt  the  dictum  of  Biedermann:  'Everything  is  miracle, — there- 
fore faith  sees  God  everywhere ;  nothing  is  miracle, — therefore  science  sees 
God  nowhere  ". 

"The  Hebrew  historian  or  prophet  regarded  miracles  as  only  the 
emergence  into  sensible  experience  of  that  divine  force  which  was  all  along, 
though  invisibly,  controlling  the  course  of  nature  ".  So  says  the  Bishop  of 
Southampton,  and  he  speaks  wisely.  This  principle  throws  new  light  upon 
many  difficult  narratives  of  Scripture.  Miracle  is  an  immediate  operation 
of  God ;  but,  since  all  natural  processes  are  also  immediate  operations  of 
God,  we  do  not  need  to  deny  the  use  of  the  natural  processes,  so  far  as  they 
will  go,  in  miracle.  Such  wonders  of  the  Old  Testament  as  the  overthrow  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  partings  of  the  Red  Sea  and  of  the  Jordan,  the 
calling  down  of  fire  from  heaven  by  Elijah,  and  the  destruction  of  the  army 
of  Sennacherib,  are  none  the  less  works  of  God,  when  regarded  as  wrought 
by  the  use  of  natural  means.  At  Cana  Jesus  took  water  to  make  wine,  and 
on  the  hill-side  of  Galilee  he  took  the  five  loaves  to  make  bread,  just  as  in 
ten  thousand  vineyards  to-day  he  is  turning  the  moisture  of  the  earth  into 
the  juice  of  the  grape,  and  in  ten  thousand  fields  is  turning  carbon  into  corn. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  express  my  belief  that  all  miracle  has  its  natural 
side,  though  we  may  not  be  able  to  discern  it.  Recent  mvestigations  show 
the  possibility  of  influence  of  mind  upon  body  which  go  far  toward  explain- 
ing many  of  the  cures  of  blindness,  deafness,  and  paralysis,  which  meet  us 


68  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

in  the  gospel  narrative.  The  virgin-birth  of  Christ  may  be  an  extreme 
instance  of  parthenogenesis,  which  Professor  Loeb  has  demonstrated  to 
take  place  in  other  than  the  lowest  forms  of  life,  and  which  he  believes  to 
be  possible  in  all.  Christ's  resurrection  may  be  an  illustration  of  the  power 
of  the  normal  and  perfect  spirit  to  take  to  itself  a  proper  body,  and  so  may 
be  the  type  and  prophecy  of  that  great  change  when  we  too  shall  lay  down 
our  own  life  and  shall  take  it  again.  The  scientist  will  yet  find  that  his 
disbelief  is  not  only  disbelief  in  Christ,  but  also  disbelief  in  science.  Even 
though  all  miracle  were  proved  to  be  a  working  of  nature,  the  Christian 
argument  would  not  one  whit  be  weakened,  for  still  miracle  would  evidence 
the  extraordinary  working  of  the  immanent  God,  who  is  none  other  than 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  impartation  of  his  knowledge  to  the  prophet  or  apostle 
who  was  his  instrument. 

Our  unreadiness  to  accept  this  naturalistic  interpretation  of  the  miracle 
results  wholly  from  our  inveterate  habit  of  dissociating  nature  from  God, 
and  of  practically  banishing  God  from  his  universe.  This  is  the  method 
of  modern  science,  and  since  science  deals  with  phenomena  and  not  with 
their  causes,  science  has  its  rights,  and  we  cannot  require  it  to  enter  a 
foreign  field.  But  there  is  another  field  which  belongs  to  religion,  and  the 
scientist  is  narrow  and  prejudiced  who  denies  the  existence  of  realities  that 
are  behind  the  phenomena.  In  his  Commentary  on  Isaiah  33  :  14,  George 
Adam  Smith  explains  the  passage  :  "Who  among  us  can  dwell  with  the  de- 
vouring fire?  Who  among  us  can  dwell  with  everlasting  burnings?"  He 
tells  us  that  the  prophet  had  no  thought  of  future  punishment  here.  It  was 
the  present  retributions  of  divine  justice  that  he  had  in  mind — those  retribu- 
tions that  the  wicked  ignore  or  deny.  If  you  look  at  a  great  conflagration, 
he  says,  through  a  smoked  glass,  you  can  see  the  bricks  falling  and  the 
walls  collapsing,  but  you  cannot  see  the  fire.  We  may  use  the  illustration 
for  the  subject  before  us.  Physical  science  looks  at  the  universe  through  a 
smoked  glass.  It  sees  phenomena,  but  not  the  cause  of  them ;  it  sees  the 
sequences  of  nature,  but  not  God.  There  is  no  antagonism  between  its 
view  and  that  of  religion  —  the  two  are  simply  complements  of  each  other. 
Faith  looks  at  the  universe  without  the  needless  intervention  of  a  smoked 
glass.  Faith  sees  all  that  science  sees,  but  it  sees  also  the  divine  agency. 
It  sees  not  only  the  falling  bricks,  but  it  sees  also  the  fire.  And  so  it  can 
recognize  the  natural  element  in  the  miracle,  while  yet  it  recognizes  in  it 
the  extraordinary  agency  and  wonder-working  power  of  God. 

Those  who  see  in  Christ  none  other  than  the  immanent  God,  manifested 
to  creatures,  find  in  this  fact  the  explanation  and  the  guarantee  of  his  mirac- 
ulous working.  The  Logos  or  divine  Reason,  who  is  the  principle  of  all 
growth  and  evolution,  can  make  God  known  to  finite  creatures  only  by  suc- 
cessive new  impartations  of  his  energy.  Since  all  progress  implies  incre- 
ment, and  Christ  is  the  only  source  of  life,  the  whole  history  of  creation  is 
a  witness  to  the  possibility  of  miracle.  Every  rational  step  already  taken 
proves  that  other  steps  may  follow.  Miracle  is  not  only  possible  but  proba- 
ble, for  the  reason  that  Christ  is  the  Moral  Reason  of  the  world,  as  well  as 


THE  MIRACLE  AT  CAN  A.  69 

its  Intellectual  Reason.  The  disturbances  of  the  world-order  which  are  due 
to  sin  are  the  matters  which  most  deeply  affect  him.  Christ,  the  life  of  the 
whole  system  and  of  humanity  as  well,  must  suffer;  and,  since  we  have 
evidence  that  he  is  merciful  as  well  as  just,  we  have  the  strongest  of 
reasons  for  believing  that  he  will  rectify  the  evil  by  extraordinary  means 
when  merely  ordinary  means  do  not  avail. 

Tne  miracle  of  Cana  would  not  have  been  wrought  if  there  had  not 
been  need  of  it.  It  was  needed  as  a  proof  that  Christ  is  the  Life  of  Nature, 
the  Knnobler  of  Nature,  the  Interpreter  of  Nature.  It  taught  that  he 
recognized  the  needs  of  the  world  and  that  he  had  come  to  supply  them, 
not  in  man's  time  but  in  his  own  time,  with  such  gradualness  and  in  such 
proportion  as  best  evince  the  wisdom  and  the  munificence  of  God.  He  has 
come  to  make  all  things  new,  to  make  sacred  every  common  relation  of 
life,  to  turn  earth  into  heaven.  But  he  will  do  this  through  his  own  nat- 
ural forces  and  laws.  Every  new  manifestation  of  his  power  shall  lay  hold 
of  and  build  upon  and  develop  that  which  already  exists,  even  as  he  uses 
the  w-ater  to  make  wine.  And  these  transformations  of  the  lower  into  the 
higher  have  only  just  begun.  Cana  reveals  the  plan  of  Christ  as  a  plan  of 
evolution.  After  Law  comes  Gospel.  After  labor  and  sorrow  and  pain  and 
tears  come  rest  and  reward  and  rejoicing  and  life  forevermore.  Sin  gives 
its  brief  enjoyments  at  the  first,  and  afterwards  brings  remorse  and  ruin. 
But  Christ's  gifts  are  ever  increasing  in  richness  and  profusion.  He  keeps 
his  best  wine  to  the  last. 

May  I  sum  up  what  I  have  said  by  a  definition  of  the  miracle  ?  A 
miracle  is  an  event  in  nature  so  extraordinary  in  itself  and  so  coinciding 
with  the  prophecy  or  command  of  a  religious  teacher  or  leader  as  fully  to 
warrant  the  conviction,  on  the  part  of  those  who  witness  it,  that  God  has 
wrought  it  with  the  design  of  certifying  that  this  teacher  or  leader  has  been 
commissioned  by  him.  This  definition  has  certain  marked  advantages 
over  those  that  have  been  commonly  accepted.  It  recognizes  the  imma- 
nence of  God  and  his  immediate  agency  in  nature,  instead  of  assuming  an 
antithesis  between  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  will  of  God.  It  regards  the 
miracle  as  simply  an  extraordinary  act  of  that  same  God  who  is  already 
present  in  all  natural  operations,  and  who  in  them  is  revealing  his  general 
plan.  It  holds  that  natural  law,  as  the  method  of  God's  regular  activity, 
in  no  way  precludes  unique  exertions  of  his  power  when  these  will  best 
secure  his  purpose  in  creation.  It  leaves  it  possible  that  all  miracles 
may  have  their  natural  explanations  and  may  hereafter  be  traced  to  natural 
causes,  while  both  miracles  and  natural  causes  may  be  only  other  names  for 
the  one  and  self-same  will  of  God.  It  reconciles  the  claims  of  both  science 
and  religion :  of  science,  by  permitting  any  possible  or  probable  physical 
antecedents  of  the  miracle  ;  of  religion,  by  maintaining  that  these  very  ante- 
cedents, together  with  the  miracle  itself,  are  to  be  interpreted  as  signs  of 
God's  special  commission  to  him  under  whose  teaching  or  leadership  the 
miracle  is  wrought. 

We  are  afflicted  with  a  mental  and  moral  astigmatism  which  sees  a 


70  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

single  point  or  truth  as  if  it  were  two.  We  see  God  and  man,  divine  sov- 
ereignty and  human  freedom,  Christ's  divine  nature  and  Christ's  human 
nature,  the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  respectively,  as  two  disconnected 
facts,  when  deeper  insight  would  see  but  one.  Astronomy  has  its  centrip- 
etal and  centrifugal  forces,  yet  they  are  doubtless  one  force.  The  child 
cannot  hold  two  oranges  at  once  in  its  little  hand.  Our  tendency  to  double 
vision  should  be  corrected  by  Old  Testament  revelation,  for  that  intimates 
that,  in  perfect  consistency  with  the  operation  of  natural  law,  the  God  of  glory 
thundereth  and  in  the  heavens  God  himself  is  speaking  with  the  living 
voice.  The  miracle  of  Cana  is  a  New  Testament  corrective  of  our  mental 
and  moral  astigmatism,  for  here  Christ  shows  himself  to  be  the  Life  of 
Nature,  the  Ennobler  of  Nature,  the  Interpreter  of  Nature,  as  only  he  can 
be  who,  as  the  Fourth  Gospel  declares,  was  in  the  beginning  with  God,  and 
was  himself  God.  To  a  transcendent  and  divine  Personality  miracle  and 
nature  are  one. 


•JESUS  AND  NICODEMUS  —  THE  NEW  BIRTH. 

(St.  John  3:1-15.) 

by  rkv.  ki>"warr>  a-bhoxt,  !>.  d., 

Rector  of  St.  James's  Episcopal  Church,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

In  order  to  a  correct  understanding  of  the  story  of  Jesus  and  Nicodemus 
it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Jewish  commonwealth  was  a  com- 
bination of  church  and  state,  presenting  an  ideal,  an  object  lesson,  of  that 
coming  Kingdom  of  God,  when  church  and  state,  long  separated,  shall  be 
united  in  a  homogeneous  whole.  One  and  the  same  code  of  laws  answered 
the  purpose  of  both  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  sides  of  the  Jewish 
national  life.  Of  almost  equal  authority  with  its  written  law  were  its 
unwritten  traditions.  It  was  one  of  the  distinctions  of  the  party  known  as 
the  Pharisees  that  they  attached  the  greatest  importance  to  tradition,  and 
enforced  it  with  the  utmost  scrupulosity  as  regarded  doctrine,  ritual  and 
life.  Accompanying  this  academic  rigor  was  often  a  practical  selfishness, 
insincerity  and  superficiality.     And  Nicodemus  was  a  Pharisee. 

Nicodemus  appears  only  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  and  he  appears  in 
that  Gospel  only  three  times ;  once  in  the  interview  with  Jesus ;  once  when 
he  protested  against  condemning  Jesus  without  a  trial ;  and  once  again 
when  he  came  with  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  bearing  an  hundred  weight  of 
spices  to  anoint  the  body  of  the  Saviour  when  taken  from  the  Cross,  and 
so  to  aid  in  preparing  it  for  burial.  The  interview  with  Nicodemus  alone 
concerns  us  this  morning. 

Nicodemus  was  also  a  member  of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin.  As  a  rule  the 
members  of  the  Sanhedrin  were  scholars  of  authority,  theologians,  teachers 
of  the  law ;  constituting  a  supreme  court  at  Jerusalem  before  whom  all 
cases  arising  under  the  law  were  brought  for  judgment. 

With  this  preliminary  picture  we  are  prepared  to  understand  the  scene 
about  to  be  described,  which  took  place  at  Jerusalem  soon  after  that  miracle 
in  Cana  of  Galilee  which  has  been  the  basis  of  discussion  this  morning. 
In  the  language  of  the  Revised  Version  the  brief  story  of  the  interview  of 
Nicodemus  with  our  Lord  is  as  follows  [St.  John  3  : 1-15]. 

In  all  probability  the  actual  words  of  our  Saviour  end  with  the  fifteenth 
verse.  There  follows  immediately  that  noble  epitome  of  the  whole  gospel 
of  the  Incarnation,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son  ;  that  whosoever  belieyeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life."  But  in  the  opinion  of  scholars  this  is  a  direct 
declaration  of  the  author  of  the  gospel,  pieced  on  to  the  narrative  of  the 
conversation  between  Jesus  and  Nicodemus,  and  not  a  part  of  the  interview 
itself. 


*  Delivered   at  the  Second   Conference,  held   at   the  Mathewson   Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
November  ii,  1903. 

71 


72  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Now  let  us  for  a  moment  pause  in  order  to  form  in  imagination,  if  pos- 
sible, a  legitimate  picture  of  the  scene  itself.  It  is  in  Jerusalem,  at  the 
crowded  time  of  the  Passover,  when  the  streets  are  full  of  the  Hebrew 
people.  It  is  night.  It  is  not  improbably  a  windy  night,  and  the  gusts  that 
sweep  over  Judea  and  Jerusalem  are  tearing  to  and  fro  in  the  streets  of  the 
city.  Under  the  cover  of  darkness,  this  Nicodemus,  an  old  man,  I  think, 
wends  his  silent  and  unperceived  way  to  the  house  where  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
is  staying.  It  seems  hardly  probable,  as  has  been  suggested  by  some 
students,  that  it  was  the  house  of  John,  the  author  of  this  gospel.  At  the 
time  of  the  crucifixion  our  Lord  did  commit  His  mother  to  the  care  of  John, 
and  John  took  her,  as  the  King  James  Version  says,  "  to  his  own  home." 
But  the  word  "  home  "  is  not  in  the  original,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  sup- 
pose that  at  this  time  the  author  of  the  gospel  had  a  "  home  "  of  his  own  in 
Jerusalem  at  which  Jesus  stayed.  Whatever  was  the  house,  we  can  safely 
and  accurately  imagine  that  there  was  a  stairway  leading  up  on  the  outside 
of  it,  as  was  not  uncommon  in  the  houses  of  the  East,  to  the  upper  room, 
which,  as  the  guest  chamber,  would  be  the  place  where  the  Lord  would 
be  found.  Nicodemus,  ascending  this  outside  stair,  could  reach  the  apart- 
ment where  Jesus  was  without  attracting  the  attention  of  the  people  in  the 
house,  so  that  both  architecture  and  darkness  favored  the  privacy  of  his  visit. 

But  why  by  night.'  There  is  danger  that  the  intimations  given  in  some 
other  parts  of  John's  Gospel  of  "  doors  shut "  for  fear  of  the  Jews  should 
apply  to  this  adventure,  and  that  it  should  be  inferred  that  Nicodemus 
came  by  night  through  fear.  There  is  no  authority  for  that  interpretation, 
though  it  may  be  true.  Let  us  not  label  Nicodemus  with  the  word  coward 
when  there  is  nothing  in  the  narrative  except  the  simple  fact  that  he  came 
by  night,  to  indicate  that  fear  had  anything  to  do  with  his  steps.  I  fancy 
that  if  you  wanted  to  see  your  pastor  upon  a  confidential  errand,  you  might 
very  likely  go  to  him  at  night  when  the  duties  and  interruptions  of  the  day 
were  at  their  lowest  ebb,  and  when  perhaps  you  might  be  more  likely  to 
find  him  unengaged. 

At  any  rate,  it  was  at  night  that  Nicodemus  went,  and  found  the 
Saviour  in  the  room  where  He  was  lodging.  You  can  imagine  that  it  did 
take  something  of  moral  courage  on  the  part  of  this  venerable  Hebrew, 
this  Pharisee,  this  judge  upon  the  supreme  bench,  to  seek  a  private  inter- 
view with  the  man  from  Galilee,  whose  unique  personality,  whose  unpar- 
alleled teachings,  the  beginning  of  whose  wonder-working  manifestations  of 
His  glory  had  already  excited  such  a  sensation,  and  aroused  such  a  hubbub 
of  excitement  and  discussion  among  the  Hebrew  people.  It  costs  some- 
thing to  interview  a  man  who  is  under  suspicion.  St.  Paul  in  his  prison 
abode  remembers  with  a  grateful  heart  the  man  who  is  called  Onesiphorus, 
because  when  he  was  a  prisoner  at  Rome  and  this  man  was  visiting  there 
he  had  sought  Paul  out,  and  was  not  afraid  of  his  bonds.  Nicodemus  was 
not  afraid  of  the  bonds  of  the  Master. 

Notice  also  that  he  comes  with  a  confession.  The  miracle  at  Cana  of 
Galilee  had  acquired  notoriety  at  Jerusalem ;  and  probably  other  miracles 


THE  NE  W  BIRTH.  73 

had  been  wrought  not  here  recorded.  Evidently  Nicodemus  does  not 
stand  alone  in  his  confession,  for  he  says :  "  We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher 
come  from  God,  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  thou  doest,  except 
God  be  with  him  ".  It  was  a  joint  confession  in  which  he  spoke  for  others 
as  well  as  for  himself.  It  was  also  a  compromised  confession,  a  limited 
confession,  a  confession  with  reservations.  All  that  it  said  was,  "we  know 
that  Thou  art  a  teacher";  yet  that  was  a  good  deal  for  a  member  of  the 
Sanhedrin  to  say.  "  We  know  that  Thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God  ", 
was  a  great  deal  more  for  a  man  in  his  position  to  say. 

Now  the  Saviour,  instead  of  meeting  this  confession  as  most  persons 
would  have  met  it,  met  it  as  He  often  met  such  ;  gives  no  attention  appar- 
ently to  the  question  or  remark  that  had  been  addressed  to  Him  by  His 
interlocutor,  but  deftly  and  effectively  turns  the  mind  of  His  interlocutor  to 
an  entirely  different  point.  Here  comes  a  venerable  Hebrew,  a  Pharisee,  a 
judge  on  the  supreme  bench,  but  by  the  Saviour  all  he  says  is  brushed  aside 
with  the  words,  "  Except  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom 
of  God".     With  one  stroke  He  puts  Nicodemus  outside  the  pale. 

Then  comes  the  question,  "  How  can  a  man  be  born  again  ?  "  It  is  like 
Pilate's  question,  "What  is  truth?"  It  may  have  been  ironical,  sarcastic, 
contemptuous  or  sincere,  or  a  little  of  each  and  all.  "  How  can  a  man  be 
born  when  he  is  old .''  "  How  can  a  man  be  born  again  when  he  is  an  old 
man  like  me,  stooped,  grey-headed,  and  trembling  of  foot,  as  I  have  found 
my  way  up  these  stairs  ?  The  Saviour  seems  to  pay  no  attention  to  this 
question,  for  in  His  second  declaration  He  passes  right  by  it  and  fixes  His 
mind  and  words  upon  a  spot  beyond  the  place,  even,  where  He  had  planted 
His  foot  in  His  first  answer.  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  a  man 
be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God  ". 

Put  these  two  answers  side  by  side  and  note  the  progress  in  the 
Saviour's  thought  from  the  one  to  the  other.  In  one  case  it  is,  "Except  a 
man  be  born  [from  above]  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God  " ;  in  the 
other  it  is,  "  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  God ".  Spiritual  perception  is  one  thing,  spiritual 
experience  is  another.  Unless  a  man  be  born  from  above  [of  the  Spirit],  and 
of  water  as  well,  he  can  neither  see,  through  his  perceptions,  what  the  King- 
dom of  God  is,  nor  in  his  experience  can  he  know  or  enter  into  the  Kingdom 
of  God  as  a  real  condition  of  his  life. 

Now,  what  does  our  Saviour  mean  by  the  distinction  that  He  draws 
here  between  baptism  of  the  Spirit  and  baptism  with  water  .^  What  does 
He  mean  by  "  being  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit  "  ?  I  know  that  this  is  an 
interdenominational  meeting.  I  am  probably  speaking  to  those  who  call 
themselves  Baptists  or  Methodists  or  Congregationalisls  or  Episcopalians. 
I  hope  nothing  I  say  will  exceed  the  courtesy  that  a  speaker  should  show  in 
such  an  assembly  as  this,  or  that  it  will  offend  or  wound  or  distress  the  sen- 
sibilities of  any  brother  or  sister  who  does  me  the  honor  to  listen  to  what  I 
have  to  say.     But  I  want  to  say  here  unequivocally,  unhesitatingly,  and  with- 


74  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

out  the  slightest  room  for  doubt  in  regard  to  my  meaning,  that  I  believe  in 
baptismal  regeneration.  Baptism  is  a  covenant  between  God  and  the  human 
soul.  There  is  a  human  side  to  it,  and  there  is  a  divine  side  to  it,  and  the 
divine  and  the  human  must  coincide  to  make  the  perfect  baptism,  which  is 
the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the  inward  and  invisible  birth.  That  is 
baptism  ;  and  what  is  baptism  ?  It  is  an  outward  and  visible  application  of 
a  medium  appointed  by  our  Lord  Himself,  accompanying  an  inward  and 
invisible  operation  of  the  divine  spirit  promised  by  God  Himself,  That  is 
baptism,  and  such  baptism  is  not  only  an  indication,  it  is  a  means,  when  it 
is  used  in  faith,  of  the  new  birth.  Those  who  have  conformed  to  the  out- 
ward and  visible  sign  have  a  right  to  expect  the  inward  and  invisible  grace, 
and  that  is  the  literal  and  spiritual  philosophy  of  that  being  born  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  water  which  our  Saviour  lays  down  to  Nicodemus  as  the  pre- 
liminary condition  not  only  of  seeing  but  entering  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

There  are  three  foundation  doctrines  in  so  much  of  the  Gospel  of  John 
as  this  Conference  has  proceeded  with  in  its  consideration  this  morning. 
The  first  is  the  Incarnation,  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  the  world  will 
never  outgrow  the  doctrine  of  the  incarnation.  Men  deride  it,  and  dispute 
it,  and  condemn  it,  and  forsake  it,  but  it  is  of  the  nature  of  the  universe. 
The  second  is  the  Atonement.  On  the  foundation  of  the  Incarnation  rises 
the  second  great  doctrine  of  the  Gospel  of  John.  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world ".  The  doctrine  may  be 
repudiated,  minimized  and  rejected,  but  there  will  ever  remain  the  sacri- 
ficial atonement  of  the  Son  of  God  for  the  sin  of  the  world.  And  the  next 
great  doctrine  in  this  spiritual  ascent  is  that  of  the  new  birth.  It  has  a 
logical  connection  with  the  others,  it  grows  out  of  the  others,  it  is  essential 
for  the  realization  of  the  others.  God  manifest  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  sacri- 
ficial Lamb  of  Calvary,  and  the  new  birth  from  above  by  the  Spirit,  with  an 
outward  sign  of  the  washing  of  regeneration  by  which  the  soul  is  restored 
to  the  kingdom  to  which  by  sin  it  had  been  lost.  Those  are  the  three 
fundamental  doctrines  of  St.  John's  Gospel. 

There  are  four  courses  to  take  with  certain  difficult  passages  in  the 
gospels  of  which  we  have  examples  before  us  in  our  study  to-day :  "  Except 
a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God  "  ;  "  Except  a  man 
be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God  ", 
We  can  say,  "  I  do  not  believe  Jesus  Christ  ever  said  such  a  thing  ";  "  that 
saying  is  a  fiction ;  it  sprang  up  in  the  mind  of  a  deluded  enthusiast  fifty 
years  after  the  Saviour  had  come  and  gone  ",  A  great  many  people  do  dis- 
pose of  such  sayings  in  that  way ;  it  is  a  very  easy  way  to  dispose  of  them ; 
yet  for  one,  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  take  refuge  in  that  method.  The 
second  course  is  to  say:  "  Yes,  the  narrative  is  authentic,  our  Saviour  said 
what  He  was  reported  to  have  said,  but  He  was  mistaken.  He  was  honest, 
sincere,  but  acting  under  an  hallucination,  as  other  men  often  do".  Well, 
there  are  those  who  comfort  themselves  with  such  a  refuge  as  that ;  but  I 
reject  it,  for  I  do  not  believe  our  Lord  was  a  mistaken  man.     The  third 


THE  NEW  BIRTH.  75 

course  is  to  admit  that  our  Saviour  said  what  He  was  reported  to  have  said, 
and  that  He  was  perfectly  sane,  but  that  He  was  an  imposter,  a  quack,  a 
mountebank,  a  pretender  who  traded  on  tlie  fears  and  superstitions  of  an 
ignorant  and  half-barbaric  people,  knowing  all  the  time  that  He  was  making 
pretentions  which  had  no  foundation.  There  are  those  who  accept  that 
explanation,  but  I  reject  it.  There  remains  only  one  other  course  open. 
Our  Saviour  said  precisely  what  He  is  reported  to  have  said ;  He  was  a 
sane  man  ;  He  was  an  honest  man,  and  He  is  to  be  believed.  My  character 
and  my  life  are  to  be  conformed  to  His  teaching,  and  if  I  fail  to  do  it,  I  must 
take  the  consequences.  That  method  of  disposing  of  these  difficult  passages 
I  heartily  accept. 


•ETERNAL  LIFE  THROUGH  BELIEF. 

(St.  John  3  :  14-21.) 
by   rev.  albert   h.  pluivib,  d.  d., 

Pastor  of  the  Walnut  Avenue  Congregational  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 

In  studying  the  Gospel  of  John  we  find  the  teaching  that  eternal  life 
comes  through  belief.  We  are  led  therefore,  to  examine  the  statements  of 
this  Gospel  in  regard  to  three  inquiries  : 

First.     What  is  eternal  life  ? 

Second.  What  is  the  belief,  or  the  believing,  through  which  eternal 
life  comes  ? 

Third.     Why  eternal  life  comes  through  belief .-' 

It  seems  requisite,  moreover,  that  some  considerations  should  be  pre- 
sented with  a  view  to  clear  these  teachings  of  this  Gospel  from  misappre- 
hension and  objection,  and  to  show  their  reasonableness  and  importance. 

I.     What  is  eternal  life  ? 

1.  Eternal  life  is  that  blessed  condition  of  existence  of  the  soul  of  man 
in  its  relation  to  God,  which  is  set  forth  in  contrast  with  another  condition 
in  which  the  soul  is  described  as  abiding  under  the  wrath  of  God,  abiding 
in  darkness,  and  which  involves  such  loss  of  good  that  the  soul,  though 
immortal,  is  said  to  perish.  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness, even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life"  (John  3:14,  15).  "He 
that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life :  and  he  that  believeth  not 
the  Son  shall  not  see  life ;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him  "  (3 :  36). 
"  I  am  come  a  light  into  the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Me  should 
not  abide  in  darkness"  (12  -.46). 

2.  Eternal  life  is  a  certain  kind  of  practical  and  affectionate  acquaint- 
ance with  God  the  P'ather,  and  His  Son  Jesus  Christ,  which  men  may  have 
through  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might 
know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  has  sent" 
(17:3).  "  Except  a  man  be  born  of  water  and  the  spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  God"  (3:5). 

3.  Eternal  life  is  that  happy  relationship  with  God  which  men  may 
have  as  a  gift  from  Christ  which  He  came  into  the  world  to  impart.  "  My 
sheep  hear  My  voice,  and  I  know  them,  and  they  follow  Me :  and  I  give 
unto  them  eternal  life"  (10:27,  28).  "Father,  glorify  Thy  Son  that  Thy 
Son  also  may  glorify  Thee,  as  Thou  has  given  Him  power  over  all  flesh,  that 
He  should  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  Thou  hast  given  Him  "  (17:1,  2). 
"  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly  "  (10 :  10). 


*  Delivered  at   the  Second  Conference,  held  at  the  Mathewson  Street   Methodist  Episcopal   Church, 
November  ii,  1903. 

76 


ETERNAL  LIFE  THROUGH  BELIEF.  77 

4.  Eternal  life  is  that  precious  relationship  with  (lod  which  men  may 
have  as  a  present  possession.  "  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  ever- 
lasting life"  (3:36).  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  heareth  My 
word,  and  believeth  on  Him  that  sent  Me,  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall 
not  come  into  condemnation;  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life"  (5:24). 

5.  Eternal  life  is  that  glorious  relationship  with  God  which  men  may 
have  as  an  inalienable  possession.  "  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life,  and  they 
shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  anyone  pluck  them  out  of  My  hand  " 
(10:28). 

II.  What  is  the  belief, —  the  believing, —  through  which  eternal  life 
comes  ? 

It  is  that  act  of  the  individual  soul  by  which  it  recognizes  and  honors 
the  claims  of  Christ,  accepts  and  confides  in  His  offices  as  the  One  sent  by 
God  to  give  eternal  life  to  all  who  thus  entrust  themselves  to  His  care. 
Thus  the  phrase,  "  believmg  in  Christ "  is  used  as  synonymous  with  receiv- 
ing Christ  as  the  One  by  whom  we,  who  have  rebelled  against  God,  may  be 
reinstated  in  filial  relations  to  Him.  "  To  as  many  as  received  Him,  to 
them  gave  He  power,  (or  the  right)  to  become  the  sons  of  (iod,  even  to 
them  that  believe  on  His  name  "  (i  :  12). 

Again  the  phrase  is  used  as  meaning  the  same  as  obeying  Christ.  "  He 
that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life,  but  he  that  obeyeth  not  the 
Son  (revised  version)  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on 
him"  (3:36). 

So  Martha  recognized  the  claim  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ,  the  anointed 
deliverer,  and  said  to  Him  :  "  Yea,  Lord,  I  believe  that  Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  which  should  come  into  the  world"  (11:27).  To  the 
Samaritan  woman  her  townsmen  said  :  "  Now  we  believe,  not  because  of 
thy  saying,  for  we  have  heard  Him  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed 
the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world"  (John  4  :42). 

These  teachings  are  well  paraphrased  in  that  admirable  definition  of 
believing  in  Christ,  by  the  late  Dr.  Joseph  Cook :  "  Saving  faith  is  the 
affectionate  choice  of  Jesus  Christ  as  both  Saviour  and  Lord  ".  This 
implies  a  penitential  confession  that  as  sinners  we  need  Him  as  a  Saviour, 
and  that  as  subjects  we  bow  to  His  righteous  rule,  and  engage  to  obey  His 
commands. 

HI.  The  third  inquiry,  why  eternal  life  comes  through  believing,  has 
its  answer  in  the  statements  made  in  this  Gospel  concerning  the  merciful 
mission  of  Christ.  Since  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life  "  (3:  16),  it  follows  that  the  first,  most  manifest  and  urgent 
duty  for  all  who  know  this  is  to  receive  and  welcome,  accept  and  trust  the 
Saviour  whom  God  sent  into  the  world  "  that  the  world  through  Him  might 
be  saved"  (3:17).  So  when  men  inquired  of  Jesus,  What  shall  we  do 
that  we  might  work  the  works  of  God,  He  answered  :  "This  is  the  work  of 
God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him  whom  He  hath  sent"  (6:28,29).  The 
Saviour  taught  that  men  had  such  evidence  of  His  divine  mission  in  His 
life-giving  words,  and  in  His  miraculous  deeds,  that  not  to  believe  on  Him 


78  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

showed  them  to  be  ungrateful  and  perverse.  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto 
you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life  "  (6 :  63).  "  If  I  had  not  come  and 
spoken  unto  them,  they  had  not  had  sin,  but  now  they  have  no  cloak  for 
their  sin.  If  I  had  not  done  among  them  the  works  that  none  other  man 
did,  they  had  not  had  sin,  but  now  they  have  both  seen  and  hated  both  Me 
and  My  Father"  (15:22-24).  "Simon  Peter  answered  Him,  Lord,  to 
whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life.  And  we  have  be- 
lieved and  know  that  Thou  art  the  Holy  One  of  God"  (6:68,  69).  On 
another  occasion  as  recorded  by  Matthew,  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said, 
"Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God.  And  Jesus  answered  and 
said  unto  him,  blessed  art  thou,  Simon,  Bar-Jonah  :  for  flesh  and  blood 
hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  My  Father  which  is  in  heaven"  (Matt. 
16: 16,  17). 

IV.  Having  thus  set  forth  the  plam  teachings  of  this  Gospel  on  eternal 
life  through  belief,  or  believing,  it  seems  proper,  in  view  of  the  frequent 
misapprehensions  concerning  these  teachings,  and  the  numerous  objections 
to  them,  to  add  some  remarks  to  show  their  reasonableness  and  importance. 

1.  God's  great  love  and  mercy  are  specially  apparent  in  His  giving  us 
eternal  life  on  such  an  easy  and  simple  condition.  We  are  simply  to  turn 
away  from  everything  wrong,  and  in  loving  trust  look  to  the  Saviour  God 
has  provided,  and  try  to  follow  Him.  We  are  not  now  "  under  the  law,  but 
under  grace  "  (Rom.  6:14);  /.  <?.,  we  are  not  under  the  law  as  a  rule  of  judg- 
ment, although  we  are  still  under  the  law  as  a  rule  of  action.  God  has  not 
repealed  His  law,  which  is  "  holy,  just  and  good  ",  and  as  His  "  command- 
ment is  exceeding  broad  ",  "  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justi- 
fied in  His  sight"  (Rom.  4:20).  But,  since  Christ  has  died  and  "borne 
our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree  "  (i  Pet.  2  :  24),  God  is  enabled  to 
exercise  His  infinite  compassion  towards  us,  and  to  accept  from  us,  instead 
of  the  perfect  obedience  which  the  law  demands,  an  imperfect  degree  of 
obedience,  if  it  is  of  the  right  kind;  if  it  is  that  humble,  penitent,  loving 
spirit,  which  is  implied  in  the  act  of  entrusting  our  souls  to  Christ,  as  our 
Advocate  and  Redeemer. 

Many  years  ago,  when  a  certain  brilliant  young  philanthropist  was  in 
charge  of  the  New  York  Independent,  he  wrote  an  editorial  inveighing 
against  creeds,  declaring  it  very  immaterial  what  a  man  believes  if  he  only 
lives  right.  "  There  is  one  simple  way  of  salvation  ",  he  said  :  "  Let  a  man 
live  according  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  he  will  be  saved".  "So 
he  will,"  the  clear-seeing  president  of  a  western  college  responded  in  a  con- 
clusive reply;  "but  no  man  ever  yet  lived  up  to  that  standard,  which 
says :  '  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is 
perfect'.  And  if  that  is  the  rule  of  judgment  every  soul  of  man  is  forever 
cut  off  from  all  hope  of  salvation  ". 

2.  To  condition  eternal  life  on  belief,  or  believing,  furnishes  one  of 
the  best  tests  of  character.  Belief  means,  in  this  connection,  as  we  have 
seen,  not  the  things  believed  apart  by  themselves,  but  the  act  of  the  person 
believing,  and  that  act  of  believing,  which  is  a  requisite  for  eternal  life,  is 


ETERNAL  LIFE  THROUGH  BELIEF.  79 

always  a  moral  act,  an  affectionate  choice  of  Jesus  Christ  as  both  Saviour 
and  Lord. 

This  is  not  as  some  allege,  making  eternal  life  depend  on  a  merely 
intellectual  assent  to  the  truth  of  a  certain  set  of  theological  propositions, 
even  about  the  person  and  work  of  Christ ;  a  kind  of  an  assent  which  may 
have  no  decisive  connection  with  character.  I  may  be  compelled  to 
believe  in  the  newly  discovered  properties  of  matter,  the  wonderful  powers 
of  certain  substances  as  sources  of  light  and  heat.  But  this  belief  does  not 
seem  at  present  to  have  any  direct  bearing  on  my  conduct  or  to  appeal  to 
me  for  any  specific  action. 

Some  objectors  speak  as  if  we  teach  that  certain  beliefs  held  in 
the  understanding  act  as  a  talisman;  as  if  one  who  has  the  catechism  in 
his  mind  is  thereby  qualified  to  enter  into  life.  A  parent  applies  to  the 
school  authorities  and  gets  a  permit  for  his  child  to  enter  the  public  school. 
With  this  in  his  hand  the  child  secures  an  entrance,  though  he  knows  little 
of  the  terms  of  admission,  perhaps  cannot  read  the  permit.  A  good  creed 
in  a  man's  head  does  not  give  him  entrance  into  life.  It  does  not  neces- 
sarily make  him  a  good  man  or  give  him  a  right  character.  It  tends  to  do 
so,  for  all  truth  has  an  inherent  impelling  power.  "With  the  heart  man 
believeth  unto  righteousness"  (Rom.  io:io).  The  question  of  intellectual 
assent  to  the  creed  depends  on  the  evidence  presented.  If  the  evidence  is 
sufficient,  assent  is  compelled.  Jt  is  not  optional  with  a  man  to  believe  it 
or  not.  He  cannot  help  it.  "The  devils  also  believe  and  tremble"  (James 
2:19).  The  question  is,  does  he  yield  to  the  constraming  force  of  that 
truth  upon  his  affections  and  his  will.''  Does  he  accept  it  as  the  rule  of  his 
own  life,  and  govern  himself  accordingly  ? 

Now,  when  Christ  bids  us  believe  in  Him,  if  His  claims  are  clearly 
seen  and  we  are  convinced  that  He  is  what  He  says  He  is,  the  appeal  He 
makes  for  our  confidence,  our  loving  trust,  is  the  most  powerful  appeal 
possible.  For  God  in  Christ  is  the  supreme  revelation  of  the  divine  char- 
acter. "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life" 
(John  3 :  16).  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  He  loved 
us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins"  (i  John  4:10). 
If  one  is  willing  to  do  right  he  will  gladly  respond  to  this  appeal  by  accept- 
ing Christ  and  confiding  all  his  interests  to  His  loving  care. 

3.  To  require  belief  as  a  condition  of  receiving  eternal  life  is  reason- 
able, because  the  essential  element  in  the  believing  required  is  only  the  love 
due  from  every  sincere  soul  to  the  highest  excellence  known. 

It  is  only  in  so  far  as  Christ  is  revealed  to  us  in  His  true  character  that  we 
are  required  to  believe  in  Him.  Some  years  ago  I  was  present  at  a  sym- 
posium on  "The  Meeting  of  the  Extremes  ",  in  the  parlors  of  the  late  Rev. 
Dr.  Joseph  Cook,  when  a  distinguished  philanthropist,  who  rejects  the 
Christian  system,  said  :  "  You  call  us  unbelievers,  when  in  fact  we  believe 
more  than  you  do  ".  He  named  a  number  of  things  concerning  the  capa- 
bilities and  prospects  of  the  soul  of  man  which  are  not  included  in  the 
Christian  belief.     The  reply  was  made,  that  it  is  not  the  number  of  propo- 


8o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

sitions  believed  that  entitles  one  to  be  called  a  believer  by  way  of  eminence, 
but  the  dignity  of  the  propositions,  and  the  directness  and  power  of  their 
bearing  on  the  practical  issues  of  life. 

And  when  we  consider  it,  could  there  be  a  proposition  submitted  to  the 
apprehension  of  man  for  his  belief  more  commanding,  or  more  potent  for 
good  if  true,  than  the  statement  that  He  from  whose  creative  hand  the 
planets  rolled,  in  the  day  "  when  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all 
the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  ",  stooped  so  low  as  here  on  this  atom  of  a 
world  to  be  born  a  babe  and  lie  in  the  arms  of  a  human  mother,  to  be  nailed 
to  the  cross  in  expiation  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  to  rise  from  the  dead  and 
bid  His  followers  go  forth  and  disciple  all  nations,  saying:  "All  power  is 
given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world  ";  and  that  He  will  then  sit  on  His  judgment  throne 
and  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations  to  receive  from  His  hands  the 
final  awards  for  the  things  done  in  the  body.  The  person  who  believes  that, 
and  joyfully  throws  all  his  interests  for  time  and  eternity  into  the  keeping  of 
this  Almighty  Redeemer,  all  history  has  persisted  in  calling  preeminently 
a  believer,  and  is  warranted  in  doing  so.  Indeed,  our  Lord  himself  bestows 
this  title  on  His  disciples,  referring  to  them  again  and  again,  by  a  tender 
diminutive,  expressive  of  endearment,  as  "  these  little  ones  that  believe  in 
Me". 

But  the  objector  further  said,  "We  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  rejecting 
this  belief.  We  simply  have  no  capacity  for  entertaining  it ".  He  illus- 
trated their  incapacity  by  the  replies  two  little  children  playing  on  their 
father's  lawn  said  they  gave  to  a  tramp  who  demanded  their  money.  One 
said,  "  We  haven't  any  ".     The  other  added  :     "  We  haven't  any  pockets  ". 

In  response  to  this,  reference  was  made  to  the  fishes,  in  the  waters  of 
Mammoth  Cave  that  had  so  long  kept  away  from  the  light  that  their  eyelids 
are  said  to  have  grown  together,  and  to  the  conceded  fact  that  many  a  high 
faculty  of  the  soul  can  be  in  a  measure  extirpated  by  disuse,  as  the  great 
naturalist  Mr.  Darwin  deplored  his  percepdon  of  spiritual  values  had  been, 
to  a  lamentable  degree. 

There  is  also  such  a  thing  as  "an  evil  heart  of  unbelief  in  departing 
from  the  living  God"  (Heb.  3:12).  We  have  a  natural  dismclination  to 
receive  evidence  that  is  likely  to  convict  us  of  sin.  The  Saviour  said  :  "  He 
that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already,  because  he  hath  not  believed  in 
the  name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God.  And  this  is  the  condemnation, 
that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light, 
because  their  deeds  were  evil.  For  every  one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the 
light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light,  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved  "  (John 
3:18-20).  But  whether  by  culpable  negligence  of  evidence  or  not,  it  was 
manifest  that  the  eminent  doubter  did  not  perceive  the  true  relation  to  the 
world  that  Christ  claims  to  hold.  For  he  said:  "I  should  never  think  of 
ending  a  prayer,  'for  Plato's  sake,  amen';  nor  'for  Emerson's  sake',  nor 
can  I  say  'for  Jesus' sake,  amen '  ".  The  Christian  can  say  this,  for  he 
recognizes  the  offices  of  Christ  as  revealed  to  him  in  the  Bible,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  so  helped  him  to  see  Christ  in  these  relations  that  he  rests 


ETERNAL  LIFE  THROUGH  BELIEF.  8i 

his  soul  upon  Him.  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  promise  Christ  made, 
"When  He,  the  Spirit  of  Truth  is  come,  He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth. 
He  shall  glorify  Me,  for  He  shall  receive  of  mine  and  shall  show  it  unto 
you"  (John  i6: 13,  14).  The  believer  reads:  "There  is  one  God  and  one 
mediator  between  (.od  and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus;  Who  gave  Himself 
a  ransom  for  all  "  (i  Tim.  2  :  5,  6).  "  If  any  man  sin  we  have  an  Advocate 
with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ,  the  righteous ;  and  He  is  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world " 
(i  John  2:1,2).  Those  whom  Christ  condemned  for  refusing  to  believe  on 
Him  were  those  to  whom  He  had  spoken  and  before  whom  He  had  proved 
His  claims  by  doing  "among  them  the  works  which  none  other  man  did", 
so  that  He  could  say :  "  Now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin  "  (John  1 5  : 
22-24). 

Seeing  Christ,  perceiving  His  righteous  claims  to  our  loving  confidence, 
of  course  must  come  before  believing  in  Christ,  before  giving  Him  our 
loving  confidence.  "  This  is  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me  ",  said  Jesus, 
"  that  everyone  that  seeth  the  Son  and  believeth  on  Him,  should  have 
eternal  life,  and  I  will  raise  Him  up  at  the  last  day  "  (John  6  :4o).  Yet  we 
are  taught  that  "  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  right- 
eousness is  acceptable  to  Him"  (Acts  10:35).  We  read:  "There  is  one 
Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism "  (Eph.  4 : 5).  One  Lord  whose  atoning 
death  alone  makes  it  possible  for  the  penitent  to  be  forgiven.  Jesus  said, 
"  I  am  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life  ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but 
by  Me"  (John  14:6).  The  apostle  Peter,  "filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost", 
said  of  Christ,  "  Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other;  for  there  is  none 
other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved" 
(Acts  4:12).  "  There  is  one  faith  ",  one  simple  act  of  loving,  penitent,  self- 
surrender  to  the  best  light  the  soul  has,  the  same  in  essence  in  ancient  saint 
and  Christian  Apostle,  in  Enoch  and  in  John.  Faith  in  God  is  love  for 
God  as  trustworthy,  "love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law"  (Romans  13:10). 
"  An  atheist  may  be  saved  ",  Professor  Park  used  to  say,  "  if  he  is  honest 
in  his  doubt,  and  sincerely  follows  the  best  light  he  can  get ".  Who  can 
doubt  that  Socrates  would  have  joyfully  accepted  Christ  if  the  world's 
Redeemer  had  been  revealed  to  him  ?  "There  is  one  baptism  ",  one  orderly 
required  way  of  confessing  Christ  when  one  has  seen  Hirr  and  believed  on 
Him.  "All  power  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  >e,  there- 
fore, and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  commanded  you ;  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world  "  (Matt.  28  :  18-20). 

The  words  of  Professor  Robert  Flint  of  Edinboro  are  pertinent  here. 
"  In  religion,  as  in  every  other  department  of  thought  and  life,  man  is  bound 
to  regulate  his  belief  by  the  simple  but  comprehensive  principle  that  evi 
dence  is  the  measure  of  assent.  Disbelief  ought  to  be  regulated  by  the 
same  principle,  for  disbelief  is  belief ;  not  the  opposite  of  belief,  but  belief 
of  the  opposite.  Unbelief  is  the  opposite  both  of  belief  and  disbelief. 
Ignorance  is  to  unbelief  what  knowledge  is  to  belief  or  disbelief.     The  whole 


82  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

duty  of  man  as  to  belief  is  to  believe  and  disbelieve  according  to  evidence, 
and  neither  to  believe  nor  disbelieve  when  the  evidence  fails  him ". 
(Theism,  p.  358). 

With  this  agrees  the  statement  of  Archbishop  Whately  :  "  Disbeliev- 
ing is  believing,  since  to  disbelieve  any  assertion  is  to  believe  its  contradic- 
tory ". 

4.  To  insist  on  religious  belief  as  a  condition  of  eternal  life  is  really 
to  insist  on  religious  life,  since  religious  life  is  the  response  of  the  soul  to 
the  appeal  of  religious  truth. 

The  familiar  voice  of  a  weak  sciolism  cries  out,  "  No  matter  about  a 
man's  belief,  religious  life  is  the  real  need  ";  as  if  the  latter  could  be  had 
without  the  former ;  as  if  the  latter  were  not  always  produced  and  deter- 
mined by  the  former.  All  truth  is  related  to  life.  Strictly,  there  is  no  abstract 
truth.  Every  conception  of  realities  has  an  inherent  impelling  power.  The 
voice  of  the  multiplication  table  tells  us  of  the  harmonies  of  God's  universe, 
with  which  it  behooves  us  to  be  in  accord.  We  look  on  the  good  Samaritan, 
and  the  scene  says,  "  Go,  and  do  thou  likewise  ".  "  Religion  ",  Professor 
Flint  says,  "  is  man's  belief  in  a  being  or  beings  mightier  than  himself, 
and  inaccessible  to  his  senses,  but  not  indifferent  to  his  sentiments  and 
actions,  together  with  the  feelings  and  practices  which  flow  from  such  be- 
lief ".  (Anti-Theistic  Theories,  p.  259.)  Hence  the  belief  is  the  governing 
constituent  in  all  religion,  indeed  in  all  character.  A  man  is  always  what 
he  is  made  by  his  belief,  not  always  by  what  he  says  he  holds,  but  by  what 
his  life  says  holds  him,  the  principles  and  doctrines  which  he  accepts  as 
his  rule  of  action  and  which  govern  his  life.  In  practical  affairs  men 
acknowledge  this.  A  man  can't  get  a  situation  as  a  clerk  in  a  store  without 
an  examination  of  his  theological  belief,  if  it  is  thought  to  be  peculiar.  A 
merchant  says  to  a  friend  :  "  Do  you  know  of  a  competent  salesman  I  can 
get?"  "Yes",  the  friend  replies,  ''the  brightest,  most  successful  one  I 
ever  knew  ".  "  Send  him  round  will  you  ?  "  "  Yes,  only  I  ought  to  tell  you 
his  religious  views  are  rather  peculiar  ".  "What  has  that  to  do  with  the 
matter.?  "  "Well,  he  believes  in  the  community  of  goods,  that  God's  plan 
is  for  all  property  ultimately  to  be  held  in  common ;  meanwhile,  if  one  does 
not  get  his  fair  share  he  has  a  right  to  help  himself  ''.  "  Then  I  don't  want 
him  around  my  till  ",  the  merchant  rejoins. 

The  genesis  of  religion  is  always  the  same:  First,  religious  knowl- 
edge ;  secondly,  religious  feeling,  awakened  by  the  appeal  of  the  truth  that 
is  seen;  thirdly,  religious  action,  or  the  choice  to  yield  to  the  appeal  of  the 
truth,  or  to  resist  it.  The  virtue  lies  in  the  action  of  the  will ;  that  is  always 
accompanied  by  emotion,  but  the  sensibility  and  the  will  are  both  abso- 
lutely dependent  on  the  conception  of  the  truth  by  the  intellect. 

5.  To  regard  belief  or  believing  as  a  requisite  for  eternal  life  is  a  safer 
rule  than  to  consider  religious  feeling  as  the  clear  sign  of  true  religion,  for 
unless  religious  feeling  accords  with  correct  views  of  truth,  it  is  liable  to  be 
misleading,  and  indeed  to  be  wholly  wrong  itself.  There  is  no  religion 
without  emotion,  but  emotion  is  not  religion.  It  must  be  regulated  by  a 
clear  vision  of  the  facts  of  the  situation.     Thus  Professor  Flint  remarks : 


ETERNAL  LIEE  THROUGH  BELIEF.  83 

"  The  heart  must  be  appealed  to  and  satisfied  as  well  as  the  head,  but  not 
apart  from  or  otherwise  than  through  the  head,  or  the  appeal  is  sophistical 
and  the  satisfaction  illegitimate.  Our  feelings  largely  determine  whether 
we  recognize  and  assent  to  reasons  or  not,  but  they  ought  not  to  be  substi- 
tuted for  reasons,  or  even  used  to  supplement  reasons".  He  condemns 
"  the  sentimentalism  which  pleads  feelings  in  deprecation  of  the  rigid  criti- 
cism of  reasons,  or  in  order  to  retain  a  conviction  which  it  cannot  logically 
justify".    (Theism,  p.  334). 

Men  often  go  wofuUy  astray  because  they  yield  to  the  impulse  of  wrong 
feelings — feelings  awakened  by  the  lower  instincts,  or  by  a  selfish  and  par- 
tial view  of  facts,  while  they  shut  their  eyes  to  unwelcome  truth,  lest  its 
stronger  appeal  should  prove  effectual. 

A  man  is  passionately  enamored  of  a  lady  whom  he  desires  to  marry, 
but  before  he  can  make  her  acquaintance  they  are  widely  separated.  Years 
pass,  when  they  chance  to  meet.  Suddenly  the  former  impulse  is  upon  him 
like  a  whirlwind.  Learning  immediately,  however,  that  she  is  now  married, 
instantly,  as  an  honorable  man,  he  stifles  the  feeling,  obeying  rather  the 
impulses  awakened  by  this  wider  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  the  case. 

A  man  says :  "  Some  of  the  sayings  of  Jesus  awaken  repugnant  feelings 
in  my  mind  I  feel  that  they  cannot  be  true  ".  He  is  reminded  that  by 
many  infallible  proofs  Jesus  is  accredited  at  the  bar  of  our  reason  as  a 
trustworthy  witness,  the  light  of  the  world,  the  truth.  This  fact,  and  the 
remembrance  of  our  imperfect  knowledge,  our  liability  to  prejudice  under 
the  blinding  influence  of  our  sin,  and  our  natural  aversion  to  admonitory 
truth,  are  considerations  which  appeal  to  him  to  yield  a  reverent  acceptance 
to  all  the  teachings  of  our  Lord. 

Those  who  regard  their  own  feelings  as  a  safe  guide,  notwithstanding 
the  appeal  to  the  contrary  of  attested  truth,  in  rejecting  certain  parts  of 
Christ's  teaching  as  untrue,  do  not  agree  with  each  other  what  parts  their 
feelings  will  allow  to  stand.  Every  man  is  to  install  his  own  feelings  as  the 
supreme  authority  in  deciding  what  portions  of  the  Word  of  God  he  will 
accept,  what  portions  "  find  him  ",  as  he  says,  or  approve  themselves  to  his 
moral  sensibilities.  Thus  the  author  of  The  Christ  of  lot/ay  says  (p.  161) : 
"  The  man  who  is  full  of  the  mind  of  Christ  is  dependent  on  no  authority  to 
declare  to  him  the  portions  of  his  Bible  that  are  truly  the  revelation  of  God  : 
he  has  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One,  and  understands  for  himself". 

Some  years  ago  an  effort  was  made  at  a  misnamed  Church  Congress  at 
Hartford,  to  ascertain  what  parts  of  the  Bible  the  feelings  of  certain  liberal 
thinkers  would  agree  in  commending  as  worthy  of  belief.  Paul's  teaching 
they  felt  could  be  disregarded,  but  their  feelings  seemed  hopelessly  at 
variance  on  the  question  how  much  of  Christ's  teachings  could  safely  be 
trusted.  At  length  an  eminent  clergyman  ended  the  discussion  by  stating 
that  we  must  all  become  like  the  little  child  that  Jesus  set  in  the  midst  of 
His  disciples  and  commended,  for  a  child  does  not  pretend  to  know  any- 
thing about  these  mysteries.  On  their  plan  he  was  right ;  they  were  agnos- 
tics all,  with  as  many  Bibles  as  there  were  men,  and  none  of  them  worth 
anything  as  a  pillow  for  a  dying  bed. 


84  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

6.  To  insist  on  religious  belief  as  a  pre-requisite  to  eternal  life  is  pre- 
cisely what  is  implied  in  the  injunction  to  disciple  all  nations. 

All  the  extensive  operations  of  the  various  missionary  societies  for  the 
prevalence  of  God's  Kingdom  over  all  the  earth  are  simply  an  endeavor  to 
carry  to  every  man,  everywhere,  the  message  which  Ihe  great  missionary 
apostle  gave  to  the  Philippian  jailer:  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved"  (Acts  16:31).  And  all  the  efforts  to  produce 
more  harmonious  and  efficient  religious  activities  at  home  and  abroad  in 
bringing  the  world  to  Christ,  can  successfully  proceed  only  on  the  principle 
that  there  must  first  be  secured  greater  harmony  of  conviction  in  regard  to 
the  underlying  truths  involved.     What  precisely  is  the  task  to  be  done  ? 

At  a  farewell  meeting  on  the  departure  of  a  missionary  sent  by  one  of 
the  liberal  denominations  to  Japan,  the  distinct  declaration  was  made : 
"We  are  not  going  out  to  convert  the  Japanese,  but  to  confer  with  them,  to 
promote  an  interchange  of  religious  ideas".  And  upon  this  apostle  of 
spiritual  trading  an  educated  native  of  that  country,  one  of  the  speakers  of 
the  occasion,  invoked  the  blessing  of  the  eighty  thousand  gods  of  Japan. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Second  International  Congregational  Council  in 
Boston  in  1899,  a  distinguished  guest,  the  head  of  Cambridge  University, 
in  discussing  Christian  unity  and  fellowship,  attempted  to  show  that  the 
only  union  possible  is  "  a  moral  unity,  a  unity  of  spirit,  which  is  completely 
independent  of  creed  ".  I  am  compelled  to  take  issue  squarely  with  that 
assertion,  and  to  affirm,  on  the  contrary,  that  there  is  no  moral  unity  or 
unity  of  spirit  possible  except  that  which  is  founded  on,  and  bounded  by, 
an  underlying  unity  of  creed.  The  measure  of  harmony  of  spiritual  life 
between  persons  and  parties  is  absolutely  and  always  determined  by  the 
measure  of  harmony  in  their  creed.  The  gentleman  further  said  that  the 
ground  of  unity  is  a  recognition  of  "  the  Christlike  conduct  of  life  ".  Indeed  ? 
And  what  is  that?  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  his  paper  on  Authority  in  Religion 
says,  "  The  human  mind  is  accustomed  to  play  tricks  with  itself  in  every 
form,  and  one  of  the  forms  in  which  it  most  frequently  resorts  to  this  opera- 
tion is  when  it  attenuates  the  labor  of  thought,  and  evades  the  responsibility 
of  definite  decision,  by  the  adoption  of  a  general  word  that  we  purposely 
keep  undefined  to  our  own  consciousness  ".  "  So  ",  he  says,  "  men  admire 
the  British  constitution,  without  knowing  or  inquiring  what  it  is,  and  profess 
Christianity  but  decline  to  say  or  think  what  it  means". 

Now  to  define  "the  Christlike  conduct  of  life  ",  so  that  it  can  serve  as 
an  intelligible  basis  for  Christian  unity,  one  must  have  some  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  of  the  application  of  His  teaching  to  our  life.  Such  knowledge 
to  be  effective  must  be  apprehended  with  some  clearness,  and  if  thus  appre- 
hended, it  can  be  stated,  and  if  stated  it  is  a  creed,  and  that  creed  governs 
the  feelings  and  acts  of  the  man  who  makes  it  his  rule  of  life.  The  propa-^ 
gation  of  the  Gospel  does  not  imply  that  perfect  agreement  in  all  minor 
matters  of  belief  is  the  end  sought,  but  a  substantial  agreement  in  its  essen- 
tial truths.  The  great  London  preacher,  the  late  Joseph  Parker,  once 
unfortunately  said  :  "  In  the  case  of  two  men,  two  hundred,  two  thousand, 
two  million,  unity  in  mere  opinion  is  not  a  miracle  but  an  impossibility". 


ETERNAL  LIFE  THROUGH  BELIEF.  85 

Yet  millions  upon  millions  passionately  sing  :  "  All  ha*il  the  power  of  Jesus' 
name",  and  that  shows  they  are  cordially  united  in  the  opinions  that  He  is 
Lord,  and  that  sinners  should  "crown  Him  Lord  of  all".  When  Mr,  Parker 
adds:  "Opinion  is  necessarily  and  happily  changeable",  his  confusion 
arises  from  spelling  opinion  with  a  capital  O  ;  for  we  must  ask,  What  opinion  ? 
The  opinion  that  there  is  a  holy  God,  that  man  is  a  sinner,  and  that  they 
must  be  reconciled  to  abide  in  peace  together,  are  necessarily  and  happily 
unchangeable  among  Christians. 

On  the  occasion  referred  to,  President  Eliot  said :  "  Opinions  and 
beliefs  vary  more  and  more,  as  knowledge  advances  and  freedom  grows  ". 
Nay,  nay;  for  who  was  it  who  bade  us  "disciple  all  nations"?  When  He 
ascended  on  high  and  gave  gifts  unto  men,  why  did  He  give  "  some  to  be 
apostles,  and  prophets,  and  evangelists,  and  pastors,  and  teachers"? 
Was  it  not  "  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the 
edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ,  until  we  all  come  into  the  unity  of  the  faith, 
and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ  ?  " 

7.  To  insist  on  belief  as  the  condition  of  eternal  life  is  the  only  way  to 
produce  strong  characters,  men  of  power  in  promoting  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  It  has  been  a  favorite  plea  of  some  that  one  cannot  justly  be  required 
to  believe  any  definite  system  of  truth,  because  nothing  of  that  kind  is 
attainable.  Christianity  is  casting  aside  its  old  forms,  which,  though  false, 
were  useful  once,  and  putting  on  what  is  true  to  us  now,  but  must  in  time  be 
cast  aside  hereafter,  for  Christianity  has  no  system  of  doctrine  and  never 
can  have.  Thus  Stopford  Brooke,  in  his  volume  on  Christ  in  Modern  Life, 
says:  "Christ's  religion  never  can  be  made  into  a  system",  and  he  remarks 
of  his  faith,  "  it  holds  all  opinions  and  theories  slightly,  being  ready  to  sur- 
render them  for  higher  truth".  But  a  religious  teacher  who  comes  to  his 
hearers  saying :  "As  at  present  advised  the  case  is  thus  and  so,  but  I  am 
pursuing  my  investigations,  and  I  will  keep  you  informed  of  my  researches 
and  of  my  doubts  as  well,"  is  like  a  man  standing  on  the  quivering  crust  of 
a  bog,  shifting  his  footing  all  the  time.  He  is  in  no  condition  to  lift  any- 
thing, or  to  strike  an  earnest  blow,  or  to  do  anything  but  sink  in  the  mire 
and  drag  others  down  with  him.  Forty-eight  years  ago,  here  in  Brown 
University,  Professor  Lincoln  gave  me  as  my  theme  for  a  college  oration, 
"Faith  an  Element  of  Eloquence",  and  he  held  up  before  me  as  a  type  of 
the  men  of  power  in  all  history  the  great  apostle  who  said:  "We  believe 
and  therefore  speak".  The  Saviour  prayed:  "Sanctify  them  through  Thy 
truth.  Thy  word  is  truth"  (John  17:17),  and  the  men  who  have  made  the 
world  better  have  been  men  who  have  held  the  truth,  and  taught  the  truth 
as  that  on  which  the  eternal  life  of  the  soul  depends. 

8.  To  insist  on  religious  belief  as  a  condition  of  eternal  life  greatly 
enhances  our  view  of  the  importance  of  a  full  and  clear  presentation  of  the 
truth,  and  thus  points  out  the  chief  difference  between  Christianity  and  the 
ethnic  religions,  a  distinction  wherein  lies  its  superior  power. 

Max  Miiller,  in  his  study  of  comparative  religions,  reaches  the  conclu- 
sion that  there  is  some  good  in  all  religions,  enough  to  save  a  man,  if  he 


86  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN: 

will  follow  the  best  light  he  has.  These  religions  may  lead  men  to  repent, 
but  none  of  them  show  how  God  can  safely  forgive  them  if  they  repent. 
That,  the  Christian  religion  alone  reveals,  and  in  that  "  piece  of  informa- 
tion "  is  the  hiding  of  its  power.  "  Christ,  Christ  crucified,  is  the  wisdom 
and  power  of  God"  (i  Cor.  1:23,  24).  Mr.  Gladstone  described  the 
Christian  religion  as  consisting  not  only  of  certain  sacraments  enshrining 
its  leading  and  distinctive  facts,  and  of  a  peculiar  and  superior  system  of 
morals,  but  also  of  a  body  of  doctrine,  whose  center  is  the  person  and  work 
of  Christ.  It  is  the  lack  of  these  characteristic  truths  of  redemption  which 
explains  the  comparative  powerlessness  of  all  other  religions.  Wendell 
Phillips  said,  "  The  answer  to  Confucianism  is  China,  to  Buddhism  is  India, 
to  Mohammedanism  is  Turkey  ".  Christianity  is  supplanting  all  other  relig- 
ions precisely  because  it  alone  is  continually  crying  to  all :  "  Behold  the 
Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  "  (John  i  :  29). 

Allow  me  a  personal  allusion  as  I  close.  At  family  worship  yesterday 
morning  Mrs.  Plumb  reminded  me  that  on  the  tenth  of  November,  just 
forty-five  years  ago  yesterday,  I  was  ordained  to  the  Christian  ministry,  and 
she  accepted  the  position  she  has  since  held  to  my  great  satisfaction  as  my 
helper  in  my  work.  It  was  a  precious  recollection,  and  it  recalled  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  voice  of  a  Providence  pastor,  the  saintly  and  sainted  Dr. 
Leonard  Swain,  of  the  Central  Church  here,  which  then  gave  me  the  solemn 
charge  to  be  faithful  to  my  high  calling.  As  we  reviewed  the  past,  it 
seemed  to  us  that  the  one  thing  which  has  grown  most  upon  our  thoughts  is 
the  greatness  of  the  love  of  Him  who  said :  "  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son 
hath  everlasting  life  "  (John  3  :  36). 

I  was  at  a  ministerial  gathering  lately  where  a  prominent  clergyman,  in 
reading  a  paper,  quoted  a  passage  from  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  paused  to 
say  he  was  aware  that  this  Gospel  is  not  considered  authentic,  but  in 
this  case  John  agrees  with  the  other  Gospels,  and  so  he  ventured  to  quote 
him.  Think  of  it !  Apologizing  for  quoting  from  this  Gospel,  which  has 
been  called  the  heart  of  Christ !     Such  is  not  the  spirit  of  this  Conference. 

I  sometimes  ask  the  children  in  the  Sunday  School  who  is  the  happiest 
man  in  the  Bible  ?  They  know  who  is  the  strongest,  the  meekest,  the 
oldest  man.  Can  there  be  any  question  that  the  beloved  disciple,  who 
knew  more  of  the  heart  of  Christ  than  anyone  else,  who  reclined  at  the  last 
supper  on  the  bosom  of  his  Lord,  was  the  most  favored,  the  happiest  man 
that  ever  breathed  ?  And  yet  he  said  :  "  Greater  joy  have  I  none  than 
this,  to  hear  of  my  children  walking  in  the  truth  "  (3  John  v.  4).  In  that 
joy,  you,  beloved  brethren  of  this  Conference,  who  have  been  here  engaged 
in  exalting  the  teaching  of  this  holy  apostle,  will  be  permitted,  through  the 
happy  results  of  j^our  labors,  to  share.  For  these  Conferences  will  assuredly 
result  in  securing  in  not  a  few  cases,  the  object  for  which  the  apostle  de- 
clares the  Gospel  was  written.  "And  many  other  signs  truly  did  Jesus 
which  are  not  written  in  this  book,  but  these  are  written  that  ye  might  be- 
lieve that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  ye  might 
have  life  through  His  name  "  (John  20  :  30,  31). 


•  THE  OPTIMISM  OF  JESUS. 

(St.  John  4  : 1-42.) 

by   rev.  krank   j.  goodwin, 

Pastor  of  the  Pawtucket  Congregational  Church,  Pawtucket,  R.  I. 

The  fourth  chapter  of  St.  John  reveals,  as  do  few  chapters  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  optimism  of  Jesus.  This  optimism  manifests  itself  in  Christ 
as  a  soul  winner,  as  a  practical  worker,  and  as  a  teacher. 

I.  The  Optimism  of  Christ  as  a  soul  ivinner.  Christ  chose  on  two 
occasions  a  Samaritan  to  teach  His  greatest  lessons;  it  was  a  Samaritan  in 
the  parable  of  true  humanity  which  He  selected  to  illustrate  the  spirit  of 
brotherhood  which  the  Jewish  priest  and  Levite  failed  to  express ;  it  was  to 
a  Samaritan  woman,  a  heretic  in  religion,  a  profligate  in  life,  the  most  un- 
promising person  possible  to  receive  His  message,  that  Christ  promised  the 
water  of  eternal  life  which  should  spring  up  forever  in  the  soul.  He  came 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world  and  He  guaranteed  to  save  to  the  uttermost. 
He  came  to  call  not  the  strong,  the  spiritually  acute,  the  morally  blameless, 
but  the  weak,  the  spiritually  blind,  the  publican,  the  sinner  and  the  outcast. 
He  did  not  flinch  at  the  hardest  problem  ;  serene  and  hopeful,  He  brought 
the  blessings  of  His  truth  to  the  most  lowly  and  the  most  sinful.  His 
optimism  was  apparent  in  His  belief  that  every  man,  however  spiritually 
impoverished,  <7v/A/ have  and  x//<?//A/ have  a  religious  experience,  a  personal 
appreciation  and  appropriation  of  the  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God.  Christ 
did  not  come  to  found  a  religion ;  the  world  was  filled  with  religions,  some 
dark  and  full  of  error,  some  bright  and  glistening  with  truth.  Christ  came 
to  bring  religious  life  to  men.  He  was  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  prophets 
of  Israel  who  stood  for  justice,  mercy,  and  the  humble  walk  with  God,  in 
distinction  from  external  obedience  to  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  the 
observance  of  fasts  and  feasts.  Christianity  is  pure  democracy.  It  assumes 
that  men  can  and  will,  if  properly  inspired  and  instructed,  bring  their  lives 
under  the  sway  of  religious  ideals,  laws,  beatitudes.  We  sometimes  ask 
the  question  whether  political  democracy  is  a  failure,  whether  the  history  of 
republics  bears  out  the  expectations  of  great  commoners  that  man  is  adapted 
to  self-government.  The  optimist  in  politics  is  compelled  to  assert  his 
faith  in  the  face  of  many  ugly  facts  which  testify  to  man's  indifference  to 
his  political  rights  and  neglect  of  his  civic  duties.  "  How  long  will  the 
American  Union  last?  "said  Guizot  to  James  Russell  Lowell.  "It  will 
exist",  was  the  reply,  "so  long  as  the  men  of  America  hold  to  the  funda 
mental  principles  of  their  fathers  ".  That  is  all  that  the  patriot  can  say 
and  forthwith  he  proceeds  to  lift  up  his  voice  and  proclaim  with  new  vigor 
the   fundamental  principles  of  liberty  which  are  public   rights,  and   indi- 


*  Delivered  at  the  Second  Conference,  held  at  the   Mathewson   Street  Methodist   Episcopal  Church, 
November  ii,  1903. 

87 


88  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

vidual  responsibility.  Formal  religion,  priestcraft,  superstitious  fear,  and 
pagan  rites,  baptized  and  called  Christian,  in  every  age  of  the  church  have 
summoned  men  away  from  the  supreme  truth  of  the  New  Testament,  that 
man  was  made  for  God,  and  can  appropriate  God  by  penitence,  faith,  and 
obedience  ;  in  a  word,  that  personal  religion  is  every  man's  right  and  every 
man's  duty.  If  the  woman  of  Samaria  could  understand  Christ's  message, 
feel  its  power  in  her  conscience,  respond  to  it  with  loyal  enthusiasm  in  her 
heart,  then  anyone  can  grasp  the  Gospel  and  take  its  healing  message  to  his 
soul. 

The  supremely  spiritual  nature  of  Christ's  gospel  of  light  is  seen  in  the 
emphasis  which  He  puts  upon  humafi  testi77io7iy.  His  gospel  is  for  all,  even 
the  most  sinful,  and  these  can  experience  in  their  hearts  eternal  life.  After 
the  experience  comes  testimony.  "  I  do  not  want  to  possess  a  religion  ", 
said  Charles  Kingsley,  " I  want  a  religion  which  will  possess  me".  The 
gospel  possessed  the  woman  of  Samaria,  she  proclaimed  the  glad  news, 
"  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that  ever  I  did ;  is  not  this  the 
Christ?"  The  people  listened  and  her  words  brought  them  to  Jesus. 
When  they  had  come  under  the  Master's  influence,  having  felt  the  moving 
power  of  His  words,  and  the  charm  of  His  benign  spirit,  they  exclaimed  to 
the  woman,  "Now  we  believe;  not  because  of  thy  speaking;  for  we  have 
heard  for  ourselves,  and  know  that  this  is  indeed  the  Saviour  of  the 
world"  (R.  v.). 

This  is  the  circle  which  is  completed  again  and  again  in  the  life  of  the 
church  as  Christian  disciples  become  soul  winners ;  first  the  penitent  at  the 
feet  of  Christ,  then  the  witnessing  disciple,  then  the  people  believing  in 
Jesus,  each  for  himself  accepting  the  truth,  not  on  the  authority  of  another, 
but  because  of  the  witness  of  Christ  in  his  own  soul.  What  does  this  all 
mean  for  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church  ?  It  is  Christ's  seal  upon  the 
necessity  of  remembering  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  advanced  not 
by  the  iron  might  of  dogma,  nor  by  the  power  of  priestly  authority,  nor  by 
the  impressiveness  of  an  ecclesiastical  organization,  nor  by  the  splendor  of 
an  imposing  worship,  but  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  advanced  by  faith, 
love  and  holiness,  the  graces  of  the  Spirit,  wrought  into  finished  and 
beautified  characters.  The  power  of  the  church  is  not  to  be  centered,  but 
scattered.  The  disciples  are  first  to  become  illumined,  then  to  illumine, 
every  man  a  bright  and  shining  light,  giving  his  light  to  the  night,  but  giving 
also  of  his  flame  to  torches  of  the  world  which  else  were  dark,  cold,  dead. 
II.  The  Optifnism  of  Christ  as  a  Practical  Worker.  When  the  disciples 
returned  from  the  village  they  found  Christ  sitting  alone  by  the  well,  the 
woman  having  left  Him  to  return  to  her  home.  As  He  talked  with  them, 
across  the  wheat  fields  came  the  people  of  the  city  (v.  35),  urged  by  the 
eager  words  of  the  woman  :  "  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that 
ever  I  did;  is  not  this  the  Christ.^"  From  the  narrative  it  is  generally 
supposed  that  it  was  in  early  December,  four  months  before  the  harvest  in 
April,  and  hence  the  significance  of  Christ's  words  to  His  disciples,  "  Say 
not  ye,  there  are  yet  four  months,  and  then  cometh  harvest  ?  behold,  I  say 
unto  you,  lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields;  for  they  are  white  already 


THE  OPTIMISM  OF  JESUS.  89 

to  harvest ".  The  grain  will  not  be  harvested  for  four  months,  but  a  spirit- 
ual harvest  is  here ;  the  people  Hocking  through  the  fields  show  that  it  is  at 
hand.  The  immediate  application  of  these  words  was  to  the  spiritual 
awakening  which  was  begun  by  the  conversion  of  the  Samaritan  woman  and 
which  was  now  shown  to  be  full  of  promise  for  all,  as  the  eager  people 
sought  the  new  Teacher. 

Appropriate  as  are  these  words  to  the  immediate  evangelization  of  the 
Samaritans,  Meyer  maintains  (against  Godet)  that  reference  is  also  made  to 
"<z//  mankind  whose  conversion  begun  by  Christ  would  be  accomplished 
by  His  disciples  ".  Two  things  stand  out  in  this  passage  which  are  valuable 
for  all  time.  i.  There  have  been  other  sowers,  the  prophets,  and  all  men 
of  God  who  have  wrought  for  righteousness,  but  Christ  is  the  great  sower  of 
truth.  Nowhere  in  the  New  Testament  has  the  dignity  of  labor  so  perfect 
an  illumination  as  in  this  conception  of  Jesus.  The  carpenter  at  the  bench 
brings  to  the  mind  the  Christ  who  entered  into  the  common  life  of  men,  but 
the  imagination  dwells  with  peculiar  delight  on  this  higher  figure  of  the 
sower,  the  Son  of  man  moving  down  the  ages  scattering  the  precious  grains 
of  truth  which  shall  surely  spring  up  in  the  hearts  of  men.  2.  Christ  shows 
the  hopeful  and  inspiring  nature  of  His  Gospel  by  putting  the  work  of  the 
Christian  disciple  not  under  the  figure  of  sowing,  but  as  Meyer  says  "  under 
the  cheerful  image  of  harvesting  ".  The  Old  Testament  in  the  same  way 
represents  sowing  as  sorrowful,  reaping  as  joyful;  as  in  Isaiah  9:  3,  "They 
joy  before  Thee  according  to  the  joy  in  harvest  "  ;  and  Ps.  126:  6,  "Though 
He  goeth  on  His  way  weeping,  bearing  forth  the  seed;  He  shall  come 
again  with  joy,  bringing  His  sheaves  with  Him  "  (R.  V.).  Christ  urges  His 
disciples  to  become  reapers  in  the  field  in  which  the  truth  has  been  sown 
and  the  ground  prepared.  The  field  is  the  heart  of  the  world  in  which  by 
discipline,  by  experience,  by  adversity,  by  the  rude  plough-shares  of  sorrow, 
bereavement,  death,  God  is  ever  making  ready  for  the  ingathering  of  the 
ripened  grain.  "  And  he  that  reapeth  receiveth  wages,  and  gathereth  fruit 
unto  life  eternal ". 

in.  The  Optimism  of  Christ  as  a  Teacher.  Never  man  spake  like 
this  Man,  for  truly  He  was  "  the  Teacher  come  from  God  ".  In  His  teach- 
ing in  the  fourth  chapter  of  St.  John,  Christ  presents  a  universal  religion 
which  annihilates  all  distinction  of  place  and  time,  and  levels  all  men  in  the 
presence  of  God,  with  whom  there  is  no  respect  of  persons.  The  Samari- 
tan woman  felt  the  searching  of  Christ's  words  as  He  revealed  to  her  the 
secrets  of  her  life,  unknown,  she  thought,  to  any  stranger,  and  she  readily 
turned  to  the  trite  theological  discussion  of  the  relative  merits  of  Jerusalem 
and  Samaria  as  the  center  of  religious  power  and  authority.  "  Our  fathers 
worshipped  in  this  mountain;  and  ye  say  that  in  Jerusalem  is  the  place 
where  men  ought  to  worship  ".  Jesus  saith  unto  her,  "  Woman,  believe  Me, 
the  hour  cometh  when  neither  in  this  mountain  nor  in  Jerusalem  shall  ye 
worship  the  Father,  but  the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is,  when  the  true  wor- 
shippers shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth :  for  such  doth  the 
Father  seek  to  be  His  worshippers.  God  is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship 
Him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth  "  (R.  V.). 


90  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

He  annihilates  all  distinction  of  time  in  the  true  Kingdom  of  God. 
"  The  hour  cometh  2,vidi  noin  is''^  when  the  true  worshippers  shall  worship 
the  Father.  Now  is  always  the  accepted  time.  Truth  is  timeless.  Duty  is 
always  now,  "now",  which  Emerson  calls  the  meeting  point  between  two 
eternities.  For  purposes  of  thought  and  for  the  practical  duties  of  life  we 
distinguish  epochs  of  time,  but  "you  do  not  date  holiness",  says  Dr.  Park- 
hurst.  Honor,  self-sacrifice,  love  are  not  concerned  with  time  any  more 
than  light  has  weight  or  fragrance  color.  So  says  St.  John,  "  He  that  hath 
the  Son  hath  life  ",  haih  it  now.  The  hour  of  fulness  of  expression  of  that 
life  will  come  in  the  future  world,  but  the  believer  hath  eternal  life  now  as 
really  and  as  vitally  as  he  will  ever  possess  it.  But  Christ's  words,  "  The 
hour  Cometh  and  now  is  "  show  further  the  reason  for  His  supreme  confi- 
dence in  the  triumph  of  faith  in  a  spiritual  God.  Christ  was  telling  of  the 
day  when,  in  no  favored  centre,  but  everywhere,  there  would  be  spiritual 
worshippers  of  God,  and  He  said,  "  The  time  cometh,  and  now  is  ".  "A 
new  power",  says  President  Harris,  "  had  been  introduced,  a  new  cause  for 
working,  and,  although  the  large  results  lay  in  the  future,  the  cause,  the 
power,  was  already  in  the  life  of  darkened,  sinning,  erring  humanity.  He 
meant  more  than  here  and  there  already  true  worshippers  could  be  found. 
*  *  *  A  new  hour  strikes  when  the  old  order  changeth.  Before  results 
become  visible,  the  far-sighted  seer  says  that  the  hour  cometh,  that  the 
next  century,  the  next  generation,  the  next  decade,  will  witness  great 
changes.  But  the  hour  cometh  because  it  now  is.  He  foresees  because  he 
sees.  The  seer  is  he  who  sees.  Foresight  of  the  future  is  insight  of  the 
present". 

The  optimism  of  Christ  as  a  teacher  is  seen  further  and  chiefly  in  His 
teaching  on  the  nature  of  matt.  This  concerns  His  doctrine  of  sin  and  the 
grace  of  God.  I  know  of  no  finer  analysis  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  its 
bearing  on  these  two  cardinal  truths  of  Christianity  than  is  given  by 
Auguste  Sabatier  in  his  "  Outlines  of  a  Philosophy  of  Religion ".  He 
says  :  "  Christ  did  not  construct  a  theory  of  man,  of  his  moral  life,  any  more 
than  He  constructed  a  theory  with  respect  to  God  and  the  universe.  He 
was  content  to  place  Himself  at  the  centre  of  the  human  consciousness,  and 
to  dig  down  to  the  source  of  life.  He  takes  man  as  he  is  in  all  climates  and 
in  all  conditions.  He  does  not  declare  him  to  be  radically  impotent  for 
good,  but  neither  does  He  flatter  him  by  veiling  his  natural  misery.  He 
knows  him  to  be  ardent  and  feeble,  full  of  needs  and  of  illusions,  capable 
of  conversion,  subject  to  passions,  the  victim  of  all  slaveries.  He  treats  him 
as  diseased,  which  is  the  truth,  and  He  does  not  think  He  can  make  him 
find  the  principle  of  serious  cure  save  in  the  very  sense  of  his  malady  ". 
"  He  does  not  blunt  the  edge  of  the  moral  law  but  sharpens  it ".  "  He  infin- 
itely enhances  the  demands  of  the  traditional  ideal ;  from  the  outward  act 
He  descends  to  the  inward  feeling — He  tells  His  disciples  to  love  their 
enemies,  to  pray  for  those  who  persecute  them,  to  answer  violence  by  gen- 
tleness, injuries  by  love.  This  morality  would  easily  become  ascetic  and 
appear  impossible  if  it  were  not  blended  with  an  opposite  element  which 
renders  it  human  and  fruitful  without  either  lowering  or  destroying  it 


THE  OPTIMISM  OF  JESUS.  91 

That  element  is  mercy  and  forgiveness :  it  is  pure,  unconditional  grace 
which  in  misery  makes  room  for  hope,  and  in  repentance  opens  the  door  to 
faith  and  to  the  work  of  faith.  These  two  elements,  inexorable  law  and 
unconditional  grace,  are  so  intimately  blended  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
that  the  Gospel  only  subsists  in  its  originality  and  with  its  power  by  their 
perfect  fusion  and  reciprocal  and  constant  action  ". 

These  glowing  words  reveal  the  true  optimism  of  Christ  regarding 
human  nature  and  human  destiny.  That  which  makes  an  eminent  physician 
is  his  skill  in  diagnosis.  It  avails  nothing  that  modern  science  has  discov- 
ered medicines  and  principles  of  treatment  to  arrest  disease,  if  the  particular 
malady  challenging  attention  be  not  recognized.  Jeremiah  describes  the 
criminal  complacency  of  the  prophets,  priests,  and  leaders  of  his  day,  who 
"  have  healed  also  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  my  people  slightly,  saying 
peace,  peace;  when  there  is  no  peace".  The  hurt  was  "the  shortcomings 
and  sins  of  the  nation",  and  the  leaders  were  "like  worthless  surgeons. 
They  refuse  to  examine  or  probe  the  wounds  of  those  who  are  under  their 
charge,  and  for  the  sake  of  their  own  ease,  assure  their  patients  that  all  is 
well ".  False  optimism  which  minimizes  the  danger  and  malignity  of  sin  is 
cowardly  as  well  as  indifferent,  dreading  a  deep  probe  and  a  seaching 
analysis,  forgetting  that  true  optimism  is  not  in  the  diagnosis  but  in  the 
remedy.  The  diagnosis  should  be  merciless,  frigidly  scientific;  the  remedy 
should  be  benign  as  the  love  of  God,  mandatory  as  hope  founded  on  the 
divine  compassion.  It  is  false  kindness  and  gross  negligence  to  say 
"health,  health",  when  there  is  no  health,  but  fatal  disease.  The  worst 
must  be  known  that  the  best  may  be  applied.  So  with  sin.  The  greatness 
of  Christ  is  shown  in  His  friendly  wounds,  in  the  end  far  more  grateful  than 
the  kisses  of  an  enemy.  Nothing  that  needs  to  be  told  is  kept  back  by  this 
frank  benefactor  of  the  human  race.  The  probe  of  righteousness  precedes 
the  balm  of  Gilead.  Sinai  is  the  background  of  Calvary.  Abounding  in 
messages  of  the  love  of  God,  divine  forgiveness,  the  glory  of  spiritual  union 
with  the  Father,  and  the  hope  of  immortality,  the  teaching  of  Christ  holds 
up  the  soul  of  man  before  the  mirror  of  the  perfect  law  of  liberty,  that  we 
may  behold  it  in  the  bondage  of  sin,  and  be  filled  with  a  passionate  desire 
for  that  true  "liberty  wherewith  Christ  has  made  us  free". 

The  world  does  not  want  its  hurt  of  sin  handled  lightly.  Horace 
Bushnell  used  to  say  that  the  dignity  of  man  is  seen  in  its  ruins.  Large 
phrases  about  the  soul  of  man  must  not  hide  from  us  the  fact  which  all 
literature,  history,  and  experience  attest,  that  sin  has  weakened  our  spiritual 
powers  and  sullied  our  spiritual  fame.  Unless  there  be  something  to  be 
delivered  from,  there  can  be  no  Christ  the  Redeemer;  if  there  be  no  sin, 
there  can  be  no  salvation  from  sin.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  dream  dreams; 
it  is  a  greater  thing  to  see  visions.  Dreams  are  of  the  darkness;  visions 
are,  like  Shelley's  poet,  "  Hidden  in  the  light  of  thought ".  We  may  dream, 
if  we  will,  of  the  final  triumph  of  right,  yet,  when  we  awake,  tne  unsubstan- 
tial stuff  of  which  our  dreams  are  made  is  painfully  evident;  but  one  keen, 
quick  vision  of  the  malignity  of  sin,  and  an  equally  clear  perception  of  the 
re-creating  mercy  of  God,  is  a  pledge  of  present  and  future  victory. 


92  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

There  are  two  streams  in  every  man's  life  says  Dr.  Matheson :  The 
stream  of  heredity  and  the  stream  of  grace.  Personal  sins  bring  us  shame, 
defeat,  the  sorrow  of  remorse;  for  these  ze/(?  are  responsible.  But  besides 
these  we  feel  in  our  hearts  the  downward  pull  of  the  race's  transgressions 
and  moral  failures.  Whatever  may  be  our  personal  views  of  the  original 
holiness  of  man,  this  we  must  all  affirm,  with  Dr.  Matheson,  that  the  stream 
of  grace  is  older  than  the  stream  of  heredity.  God's  mercy  is  from  everlast- 
ing io  everlasting,  and  "the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world"  is  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world".  In  the 
message  which  Christ  brought  to  a  poor,  broken,  outcast  woman  in  Samaria, 
He  gave  to  all  mankind  the  promise  of  eternal  life ;  a  new  heaven  of  ideals 
of  hope,  faith  and  peace ;  a  new  earth  of  conduct,  of  righteousness,  love  and 
joy. 


*  THE  SOURCE  OF  JESUS'  STRENGTH. 
(St.  John  4:34.) 

tBY     RKV.     W'lI^I.IS    i».     Ol^iU.l.,     1).     n.. 

Pastor  of  Calvary  Methodist  Eitscopal  Church  of  Nfav  York. 

Historj'  tells  us  of  a  distinguished  general  who  conducted  a  great  army 
through  a  desolate  and  hostile  country  with  much  enthusiasm  to  a  remark- 
able triumph.  The  secret  of  his  success  lay  in  his  own  resolute  and  genial 
personality.  His  soldiers,  worn  and  footsore,  were  but  scantily  supplied 
with  food.  The  heat  of  the  sun  was  dreadfully  oppressive.  Day  by  day 
the  ranks  thinned  out  as  climate  and  privation  wrought  their  natural  results. 
But  in  spite  of  all  discouragements  the  gallant  hosts  pressed  on.  The 
explanation  was  to  be  found  in  the  conduct  of  the  leader.  Foregoing  the 
privileges  of  rank  he  dismounted  and  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  column, 
sharing  with  the  common  soldier  the  fatigue  and  hardship  of  the  march. 
He  ate  the  same  food  and  slept  with  them  shelterless  under  the  open  skies. 
The  effect  of  his  presence  and  example  was  most  exhilarating.  The  army 
would  have  followed  him  anywhere,  even  to  the  gates  of  death. 

On  a  certain  occasion  Jesus,  addressing  His  disciples,  said:  "I  have 
given  you  an  example  that  ye  should  do,  as  I  have  done  to  you".  In  his 
first  epistle  to  the  churches,  Peter  takes  up  the  same  idea  and  declares  that 
Christ  has  left  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow  His  steps.  In  many 
places  in  Scripture  a  similar  notion  is  set  forth  with  great  distinctness. 
There  is  no  more  manifest  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  than  that  the 
disciple  is  to  endeavor  to  be  like  his  Master. 

One  of  the  most  popular  religious  books  of  the  ages  is  "  The  Imitation 
of  Christ ",  by  Thomas  a  Kempis.  Written  as  it  was  by  a  mediaeval  monk, 
it  is  nevertheless  loved  and  prized  by  all  communions  of  Christians.  The 
very  title  challenges  attention  and  commends  it.  The  great  example  is 
presented  as  a  model  whose  virtues  are  to  be  copied.  What  Christ  did.  His 
followers  are  to  do.  Dr.  Stalker  is  the  author  of  another  volume  with  wider 
scope  but  built  upon  the  same  idea,  under  the  name  "Imago  Christi ". 
It  describes  the  Master  as  He  appeared  in  His  human  relations,  in  the  home, 
the  state,  the  church,  society,  and  as  He  conducted  Himself  as  a  teacher,  a 
man  of  feeling,  a  student,  a  philanthropist,  a  winner  of  souls.  Here  also 
Christ  is  a  model.  Dr.  Sheldon  in  his  well  known  work  "  In  His  Steps  ", 
discusses  the  question  "What  Would  Jesus  Do?"  and  endeavors  to  point 
out  the  path  of  duty  on  the  basis  of  an  obligation  to  imitate  the  great 
-example.  All  these  volumes  are  exceedingly  valuable  because  they  enforce 
the  great  truth  that  in  the  Master  there  is  an  ideal  for  all  disciples. 


*  Delivered  at  the  Second  Conference,  held  at  the  Mathewson  Street  .Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
November  ii,  1903. 

t  Now  Pastor  of  the  First  Methodist  Kpiscopal  Church,  ( lermantown,  Philadelphia,  Penn. 

93 


94  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

The  incident  brought  to  our  attention  by  the  passage  selected  by  your 
committee  for  our  consideration  at  this  hour  is  very  suggestive.  The  scene 
is  laid  at  a  familiar  point.  Jesus  is  seated  on  the  curbing  of  Jacob's  well. 
He  had  just  come  on  a  long  and  dusty  journey  from  Jerusalem.  It  was  the 
sixth  hour  of  the  day.  The  disciples  had  gone  to  the  neighboring  Sychar 
to  purchase  food.  The  Master  had  remained  behind  to  rest.  Thus  seated 
and  waiting,  a  woman  from  the  town  approached  Him.  He  entered  into 
conversation  with  her  and  gradually  led  the  way  to  the  proclamation  of 
important  truths.  He  laid  before  her  a  great  privilege  and  aroused  keen 
interest  in  His  offers.  She  came  to  see  herself  in  a  new  light  and  was 
surprised  and  disturbed.  While  He  talked  with  her  the  disciples  returned 
with  a  plentiful  supply  of  edibles.  They  were  amazed  to  find  Him  in 
conversation  with  a  woman.  When  she  lelt  they  spread  out  the  food  they 
had  procured  and  invited  Him  to  eat.  To  their  astonishment  He  replied, 
"I  have  meat  to  eat  that  ye  know  not  of".  This  still  furiher  amazed  them. 
What  could  He  mean  ?  Had  any  man  brought  Him  ought  ?  To  their  puzzled 
inquiry  He  answered,  "My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me". 

The  theme  on  which  I  am  announced  to  speak  is  "  The  Source  of  Jesus' 
Strength".  The  idea  embodied  in  the  Scripture  selected  finds  an  appro- 
priate putting  in  this  statement.  The  committee  who  formulated  it  have 
brought  the  teaching  of  the  passage  before  us  into  clear  light.  Jesus  was 
possessed  of  notable  strength  and  in  the  words  just  quoted  He  revealed  the 
secret  of  it. 

It  will  be  readily  agreed  that  the  strength  referred  to  in  theme  and 
Scripture  is  not  of  the  muscular  sort.  The  word  as  here  employed  does 
not  stand  for  brawn,  or  physical  virility.  There  are  no  reasons  for  thinking 
that  Jesus  was  particularly  distinguished  in  these  directions.  His  bodily 
resources  were  probably  only  of  the  average  kind.  We  know  He  was  not 
a  weakling,  for  He  endured  many  hardships  with  patience  and  sustained 
vigor.  But  He  was  not  an  athlete.  He  did  not  attract  attention  on  account 
of  physical  prowess.     His  distinguishing  ability  lay  in  another  realm. 

Of  course  strength  of  any  kind  is  valuable.  It  is  an  asset  worth  pos- 
sessing. It  is  stock  in  trade.  It  is  a  bank  account.  One  can  always  turn 
it  to  advantage.  But  there  are  varieties  of  strength.  That  is  to  say,  one 
may  be  strong  in  several  directions.  The  strength  contemplated  in  the 
theme  and  provided  for  in  the  text  is  that  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
soul.  By  it  one  faces  peril,  bears  burdens  and  endures  hardships  with 
great  readiness  and  without  flinching.  In  this  realm  Jesus  was  very  strong. 
Of  His  soul  we  may  say  it  was  gigantic  in  its  proportions.  He  was  a  veritable 
athlete  when  it  came  to  facing  temptations  and  attempting  tasks  requiring 
courage  and  resolution. 

How  did  He  come  to  the  possession  of  such  ability  ?  By  what  means 
did  He  develop  that  strength  for  which  He  was  so  distinguished .''  It  is  a 
practical  inquiry,  for  upon  it  turn  some  very  important  lessons. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  strength  everywhere  depends  on  nourish- 
ment.    Full  measure  of  strength  calls  for  adequate  nourishment.     Without 


THE  SOURCE  OF  JESUS'  STRENGTH.  95 

food  all  physical  powers  presently  decay.  Life  indeed  is  dependent  upon 
it.  Physical  vigor  is  everywhere  maintained  by  entirely  natural  processes. 
Properly  enough,  therefore,  the  scientist  gives  attention  to  the  kind  of 
food  best  fitted  to  produce  certain  results.  It  is  well  known  that  nitrogen- 
ous foods  are  good  for  burden  bearers,  because  they  minister  to  muscular 
power.  Carbonates  are  necessary  for  those  who  are  exposed  to  rigorous 
weather,  because  they  develop  heat.  Phosphates  are  useful  for  brain  work- 
ers, because  they  build  up  nervous  energy.  When,  therefore,  one  knows 
what  he  wants  to  do,  he  can  easily  determine  what  kind  of  supplies  are 
necessary  for  him. 

Jesus  knew  what  He  wanted,  and  He  also  knew  how  to  get  it.  He  saw 
that  the  special  tasks  to  which  He  was  called  would  put  particular  strain 
upon  the  spiritual  nature  and  that,  therefore,  He  must  have  nourishment  for 
soul.  Accordingly,  He  selected  the  food  which  would  contribute  to  the 
desired  result.     What  was  this  food  ?     Let  us  see. 

"  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me  ".  There  are  no  mys- 
teries in  this  passage  It  is  a  very  simple  statement,  and  its  meaning  is 
readily  grasped.  Obedience  is  clearly  the  thing  to  which  reference  is 
made.  This  is  the  food — the  meat  on  which  He  fed.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  when  He  was  a  boy  He  said,  in  explanation  of  His  conduct  in  the 
temple,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  My  Father's  business?"  The 
temper  and  purpose  He  then  displayed  were  characteristic.  On  the  basis  of 
His  established  habits  He  could  truly  say,  "  I  do  always  the  things  that  please 
Him  ".  That  was  the  perpetual  attitude  He  assumed  toward  the  divine  will. 
In  the  model  prayer  which  He  taught  His  disciples  to  say  occur  the  words, 
"  Thy  kingdom  come ;  Thy  will  be  done  ".  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  He  met 
all  duties  and  performed  all  services.  He  was  entirely  submissive  to  the 
Father's  will.  And  so  at  Gethsemane,  when  the  clouds  shut  down  about 
Him  and  He  was  face  to  face  with  the  awful  test,  He  said,  "  Not  as  I  will,  but 
as  Thou  wilt ".  It  is  not  surprising,  in  view  of  this  complete  subjection  to 
the  wishes  of  the  One  who  sent  Him,  that  the  voice  from  heaven  declared, 
"  This  is  My  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased  ". 

Now,  what  were  the  psychological  processes  by  which  this  sort  of 
nourishment  was  transformed  into  spiritual  vigor.  The  question  is  an 
important  one ;  but  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  find  a  satisfactory  answer. 
The  route  is  short  and  can  be  easily  followed. 

The  obedience  of  Jesus  was  complete.  He  was  absolutely  committed 
to  the  service  of  His  Father.  The  thoroughness  of  His  consecration 
brought  Him  into  entire  harmony  with  God.  There  was  no  sense  of 
estrangement  or  antagonism.  He  had  no  will  other  than  the  divine  will, 
or,  rather,  He  willed  that  His  will  should  be  completely  surrendered  to  the 
divine  will. 

Of  necessity  there  resulted  a  feeling  of  unity.  He  was  sure  that  He 
was  acting  in  accord  w'ith  the  divine  purposes.  He  was  contributing 
directly  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  divine  program.  There  was  no  waste 
of  energy  because  no  false  move.  He  was  doing  precisely  what  the  over- 
ruling Power  in  the  universe  desired  Him  to  do. 


96  THE  GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHN. 

His  faith  in  the  wisdom  of  this  Power  lifted  Him  into  an  atmosphere  of 
hope.  Ultimate  success  must  come.  The  divine  plans,  founded  in  wis- 
dom, must  be  crowned  with  triumph.  There  could  not  be  any  permanent 
failure,  for  Omnipotence  and  Omniscience  formed  a  combination  which 
rendered  defeat  impossible.  Naturally  enough  His  soul  caught  the 
enthusiasm  of  a  great  ideal.  A  consummation  devoutly  to  be  desired  was 
sure  to  be  accomplished.     The  vision  filled  and  thrilled  Him  with  delight. 

The  satisfaction  imparted  by  the  prospect  not  only  delighted  Him,  it 
exhilarated  and  stimulated  Him.  There  was  refreshment  and  invigoration 
of  spirit  in  the  outlook.  The  old  prophet  said:  "The  joy  of  the  Lord  is 
your  strength  ".  This  came  to  be  literally  true  in  the  experience  of  Jesus. 
In  His  soul  there  was  a  sweet  and  restful  confidence  which  enabled  Him  to 
rejoice  in  the  presence  of  all  tasks.  The  gladness  of  His  heart  infused 
vigor  into  every  fibre  of  His  being.  There  was  genuine  tonic  in  the  view 
presented  to  His  awakened  intelligence.  However  difficult  might  be  the 
undertaking,  and  however  long  delayed  the  result,  He  should  yet  see  of  the 
travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied. 

It  was  some  such  an  experience  as  this  which  came  to  Him  as  He  sat 
on  the  famous  well  and  opened  to  the  quickened  conscience  of  the  woman 
from  Sychar  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel.  He  had  made  known  to  her  the 
true  character  of  God  as  a  spirit,  to  whom  spiritual  worship  alone  was 
acceptable.  He  had  announced  in  distinct  terms  the  fact  of  His  Messiah- 
ship.  In  fulfillment  of  His  commission  to  proclaim  the  abounding  grace  of 
heaven  He  had  set  before  her  the  opportunity  of  partaking  of  that  ministry 
which  should  be  in  her  a  well  of  water  springing  up  unto  everlasting  life. 
He  caught  the  fire  of  an  eager  longing  for  the  immediate  salvation  of  an 
aroused  soul  and  His  whole  nature  was  lifted  up.  The  weariness  of  the 
flesh  was  quite  forgotten  in  the  stimulation  of  spirit. 

In  all  this  it  should  be  noticed  that  there  was  absolutely  nothing 
miraculous ;  nothing  even  marvelous ;  nothing,  indeed,  really  surprising. 
The  process  was  a  wholly  natural  one.  It  is  entirely  within  the  bounds  of 
reason  to  say  that  Christ  simply  illustrated  in  this  instance,  as  indeed  in 
many  others,  the  possibilities  of  all  men.  He  showed  what  any  person 
might  experience  who  would  be  willing  to  meet  the  conditions.  He  revealed 
the  secret  of  spiritual  power.  What  He  did,  anyone  could  do.  As  He  devel- 
oped strength  by  obedience,  so  any  person  who  would  pay  the  price  might 
reach  a  similar  result.  The  invigoration  which  came  to  Him  was  precisely 
hke  that  which  will  come  to  any  one  who  will  yield  himself  completely  to  the 
divine  control. 

Examples  of  eager  enthusiasm,  springing  out  of  obedient  service,  are 
many  and  inspiring  in  the  history  of  the  centuries.  Sturdy  souls  have  not 
been  wanting  who  have  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Master  and  have 
come  as  He  did  to  great  strength. 

Foremost  among  the  apostles  stands  that  grand  apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 
He  was  betrayed  by  false  brethren  ;  he  was  entrapped  by  evil  men ;  he  was 
the  victim  of  many  ills ;  he  was  persecuted  often  by  those  of  his  own  nation  : 


THE  SOURCE  OE  JESUS'  STRENGTH.  97 

but  none  of  these  things  moved  Him.  "  Whose  I  am  and  whom  I  serve  " 
was  the  working  motto  of  His  Hfe.  He  was  obedient  to  the  divine  will  and 
found  stimulation  in  it. 

In  great  weariness  of  body  the  saintly  Chrysostom  resolutely  faced  the 
deprivations  and  miseries  of  banishment.  He  could  not  be  bought  by  royal 
favor  nor  frightened  by  royal  threats.  Absolutely  loyal  to  conscience  he 
was  strong  with  the  strength  which  comes  from  a  consciousness  of  service 
faithfully  performed.     To  the  last  his  soul  was  cheerful  and  contented. 

Xavier  was  moved  by  a  burning  passion  for  the  unsaved.  Though  a 
Roman  Catholic,  he  earnestly  sought  the  good  of  souls.  He  was  wholly 
given  to  the  task  of  proclaiming  the  Gospel  and  leading  men  to  accept  it. 
After  having  traveled  through  many  kingdoms  and  baptized  thousands  of 
people,  as  it  is  reported.  He  still  cried,  "  Yet  more,  O  my  God  !  yet  more!  " 
"The  joy  of  the  Lord  was  his  strength  ".  He  found  in  the  delight  of  service 
invigoration  for  continued  toil. 

David  Livingstone  exhibited  a  similar  indifference  to  hardship.     After 
long  journeyings,  Stanley  found  him  in  the  centre  of  Africa  and  presented 
to  him  an  appeal  and  an  opportunity  to  return  to  civilization.     But  the  old 
hero  was  unmoved.     What  cared  he  for  the  applause  of  men  r     On  his  soul 
were  the  needs  of  suffering  millions.     He  would  stay  where  he  was  rather 
than  desert  the  field  of  duty.     On  his  last  birthday  he  wrote :    "  My  Jesus, 
my  king,  my  life,  my  all,  I  again  dedicate  my  whole  self  to  Thee  ".     No 
wonder  with  such  delight  in  the  Lord  he  found  abundant  strength  for  labor. 
That  old  hero  John  G.  Paton,  missionary  to  the  New  Hebrides,  closed 
a  recent  volume  with  these  words  :     "Oh,  that  I  had  my  life  to  begin  again  I 
I  would  consecrate  it  anew  to  Jesus  in  seeking  the  conversion  of  the  remain- 
ing cannibals  of  the  New  Hebrides  ".     In  labors  abundant,  in  perils  multi 
tudinous,  with  courage  unflinching,  this  man  of  one  purpose  held  steadily  to 
his  chosen  task  through  many  stormy  years.     But  during  it  all  there  was 
rare  cheerfulness,  springing  out  of  gladsome  obedience  to  the  Father's  will. 
As  in  all  the  past,  the  Christian  life  today  calls  for  great  vigor.     The 
apostolic  exhortation  was :  "  Be  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His 
might ".     Such  an  appeal  is  now  in  order.     Strength  is  an  indispensable 
requisite  for  those  who  would  acquit  themselves  like  true  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

But  how  may  one  become  strong?  By  what  means  may  the  necessary 
vigor  be  developed?  In  the  experience  of  Jesus  there  is  a  sufficient  answer. 
If  men  will  do  as  He  did,  they  may  develop  all  the  strength  they  need. 

As.sent  to  a  creed  is  not  enough.  Conformity  to  the  outward  require- 
ments of  the  church  will  not  secure  salvation.  Something  more  is  demanded. 
If  ('hristian  life  is  built  simply  on  profession,  when  the  great  crises  come 
disaster  will  be  sure  to  follow.  There  must  be  a  zeal  born  of  deep  convic- 
tion and  enthusiasm  nourished  by  service,  if  great  victories  are  to  be  secured. 
Not  those  who  cry  "Lord,  Lord  !"  but  those  who  "do  His  will"  are 
promised  divine  favor.  The  voice  of  revelation  distinctly  declares: 
"  Blessed  arethey  who  do  His  commandments".    Only  such  have  a  prospect 


98  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  entering  through  the  gates  into  the  city.  It  was  the  ringing  counsel  of 
the  practical  James — advice  preeminently  suited  to  these  modern  times — 
"  Be  ye  doers  of  the  Word  and  not  hearers  only  ". 

Are  there  any  enrolled  in  the  army  of  the  Lord  today  who  are  unfit  for 
service  on  the  firing  line  ?  Indeed,  are  there  not  many  who  are  better  fitted 
for  the  hospital  than  for  any  kind  of  active  engagement?  There  are  many 
weaklings  in  the  church  today.  They  have  no  strength  and  can  never  be 
relied  upon  in  an  emergency.  They  are  a  burden  on  evangelism  and  a 
hindrance  to  the  progress  of  the  kingdom. 

What  the  world  needs  most  at  this  hour  is  not  harnessed  Niagaras, 
steel  railways  belting  the  sides  of  continents,  ship  canals  uniting  oceans,  but 
men  and  women  of  tense  moral  fibre,  who  can  stand  unmoved  in  the  pres- 
ence of  corruption,  face  the  raging  of  evil  men  undisturbed,  tower  aloft 
like  angels  above  the  pigmies  who  crouch  at  their  feet,  and  with  invincible 
will  and  dauntless  daring  help  to  hasten  the  day  when  Christ's  dominion 
shall  become  universal. 

Let  me  venture  an  exhortation.  Let  us  enthrone  the  will  of  God  in  our 
hearts.  Let  us  make  Jesus  the  model  of  our  conduct.  Let  us  with  enthusi- 
asm imitate  the  glorious  example  He  set. 

Says  Stalker  in  his  "  Imago  Christi ":  "  The  imitation  of  Christ ! 
The  very  sound  of  this  phrase  goes  to  the  heart  of  every  Christian  and  sets 
innumerable  things  moving  and  yearning  in  the  soul.  There  is  a  summons 
in  it  like  a  ravishing  voice  calling  us  to  sunny  heights.  It  is  the  sum  of  all 
which  in  our  best  moments  and  in  our  deepest  hearts  we  desire  ". 

We  have  not  made  enough  of  this.  We  have  been  slow  to  appreciate 
its  value.  We  have  been  placing  so  much  emphasis  upon  the  meaning  of 
Christ's  sacrifice  that  we  have  forgotten  the  significance  of  His  example. 

Of  course  He  died  to  redeem  us.  This  we  must  always  remember. 
We  will  not  cease  to  exalt  the  cross.  In  the  presence  of  that  unparalleled 
love,  which  led  to  His  self-surrender  to  the  cruel  agony  of  Calvary  that  He 
might  secure  deliverance  for  man  from  the  guilt  of  sin,  we  must  forever 
kindle  ardent  affection. 

But  while  we  keep  the  atonement  perpetually  in  view,  as  the  measure  of 
divine  love  for  us,  let  us  also  keep  the  life  of  the  Master  before  us  as  the 
ideal  of  conduct.  Let  us  remember  that  He  lived  to  show  men  how  to  live. 
Let  us  take  Him  as  our  example,  and  let  us  ceaselessly  endeavor  to  imitate 
His  virtues. 


*THE   GOSPEL    OF    JOHN  IN  THE  SPIRITUAL   LIFE 
OF    THE  CHURCHES. 

BY    RKV.    HENRY    ]vr.    KING,     D.     D., 

Pastor  ok  the  First  Bai-tist  Church  in  Providence. 

This  important  topic  will  be  best  presented,  if  we  consider  the  avowed 
purpose  of  the  Gospel ;  the  fitness  of  the  author  to  carry  it  out;  the  manner 
in  which  he  has  done  it ;  and  the  success  which  he  has  achieved.  As  some 
of  the  topics  discussed  in  these  Conferences  are  special  and  have  to  do  with 
particular  passages,  while  others  are  general  and  have  to  do  with  the  scope 
and  purpose  of  the  entire  Gospel,  it  is  inevitable  that  there  will  be  instances 
of  repetition  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  there  may  be  honest  differences  of 
opinion  in  interpretation. 

Professor  Cremer,  in  his  able  "  Reply  to  Harnack  on  the  Essence  of 
Christianity  ",  defines  his  view  of  the  purpose  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  in  the 
following  words  :  "  The  Johannean  Gospel  is  intended  for  the  congregation 
of  believers  who  already  know  and  follow  Christ,  and  is  meant  to  strengthen, 
confirm  and  enrich  them,  and  to  develop  their  faith  more  fully.  The 
synoptic  Gospels,  on  the  other  hand,  give  us  that  record  of  Jesus'  career 
and  history  as  it  was  again  and  again  reported  in  connection  with  the 
missionary  preaching,  and  as  it  very  soon  took,  as  to  the  main  parts,  a 
relatively  fixed  form.  Matthew  gives  the  apology  of  Jesus'  Messiahship 
over  against  Judaism ;  Luke  a  record  of  the  history  of  Jesus,  and  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel  set  down  for  the  enlightenment  of  a  prominent  heathen 
interested  in  Christianity ;  while  Mark  has  put  together  what  he  heard  again 
and  again  in  the  missionary  preaching.  We  may  thus  understand  how  it  is 
that  we  meet  a  difference  between  the  Johannean  account  and  that  of  the 
synoptists,  which  is  similar  to  the  difference  that  appears  between  the  apos- 
tolic account  and  that  of  Christ  Himself". 

In  other  words,  John's  Gospel  contains  the  unfolding  by  Christ  of 
Himself,  His  person  and  mission,  to  those  who  had  become  His  disciples, 
and  were  to  some  extent  prepared  to  welcome  and  apprehend,  and  be 
enriched  by  the  deeper  spiritual  truths  of  His  kingdom. 

The  purpose  of  this  latest,  maturest,  richest  of  the  four  Gospels  has 
been  variously  conceived  by  different  writers.  There  is  a  tradition  that 
John  was  requested  by  his  fellow  Christians  to  prepare  a  Gospel  with  a  view 
to  counteract  the  influence  of  certain  heretical  views  of  the  nature  of  Christ 
which  were  prevalent  near  the  close  ot  the  first  century ;  and  that  before 
consenting  he  asked  them  to  spend  with  him  three  days  in  fasting  and 
prayer  that  he  might  ascertain  the  Lord's  will  in  a  matter  so  serious  and 


♦Delivered  at    the  Second  Conference,   held   at   the  Mathewson  Street   Methodist  Episcoi'al  Church, 
November  ii,  1903. 

99 


,oo  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

sacred.  Jerome  seems  to  have  accepted  the  tradition  as  founded  on  fact, 
for  he  says  that  "  John  last  of  all  wrote  a  Gospel  when  asked  to  do  so  by 
the  bishops  of  Asia,  against  Cerinthus  and  other  heretics,  and  especially 
against  the  rising  dogma  of  the  Ebionites,  who  asserted  that  Christ  did  not 
exist  before  Mary  ". 

It  looks  sometimes  as  if  the  writer  of  this  Gospel  was  seeking  to  meet 
objections,  and  to  convince  heretics,  and  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
philosophic  thought  of  that  philosophical  age.  He  could  not  have  been 
Ignorant  of  Philo  and  his  teachings  of  the  Logos — that  Jewish  philosopher 
of  Alexandria  who  died  within  ten  years  after  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  and 
who  endeavored  to  harmonize  the  Mosaic  religion  with  Ratonism.  It  was 
the  "  higher  criticism  "  of  that  day,  an  attempt  to  reduce  revelation  to  a 
philosophic  basis  by  the  hypothesis  of  a  Logos,  personal  or  impersonal, 
Philo  seemed  to  be  uncertain  which,  the  embodiment  of  all  divine  power 
and  wisdom — a  doctrine  which  was  the  fruitful  germ  of  all  the  gnostic  spec- 
ulations and  heresies  of  the  second  and  third  centuries.  But  John,  guided 
by  the  divine  Spirit  (for  no  humble  fisherman  unaided  could  have  attained 
unto  it),  declared  Christ  to  be  the  true,  living,  personal  Logos,  possessor  of 
creative  power  and  infinite  wisdom,  God  and  Saviour  in  one  person,  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh.  The  word  "  Logos"  in  its  religio-philosophic  use  was 
like  "  the  altar  to  the  unknown  God  "  at  Athens.  John  seized  the  word  and 
the  opportunity  it  afforded,  and  in  applying  it  to  Christ  gave  to  it  a  larger 
and  truer  interpretation,  a  diviner  fulness  and  richness  of  meaning,  vir- 
tually saying,  "  Whom,  therefore,  ye  ignorantly  worship,  Him  declare  I 
unto  you  ".  In  thought,  he  went  back  to  the  story  of  creation,  "  In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  ",  and  in  similar  language 
opened  his  story  of  redemption,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God  ".  He  gathered  up  all  that 
was  true  in  revelation  and  all  that  was  highest  and  best  in  philosophy,  and 
centered  it  in  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Divine  Logos.  (An  extract  from 
"  Our  Gospels  ",  pp.  80,  81,  by  Henry  M.  King.) 

Other  writers  hold  the  view  that  John's  Gospel  was  intended  to  be  sup- 
plementary to  the  other  Gospels,  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  the  first  three, 
especially  in  reference  to  the  ministry  of  Christ  in  Judea,  and  the  remark- 
able events  which  took  place  during  its  one  year,  possibly  two  years'  dura- 
tion, and  the  memorable  discourses  which  do  not  appear  in  the  synoptical 
Gospels,  but  form  so  large  and  unspeakably  valuable  a  part  of  John's  mes- 
sage, especially  the  farewell  discourses  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth chapters.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  with  Alford,  that  none  of  the 
other  Gospels  had  ever  been  seen  by  John.  They  had  been  written  for 
thirty  or  forty  years  prior  to  John's  Gospel,  and  undoubtedly  had  been 
numerously  transcribed,  and  widely  circulated,  and  highly  prized  by  the 
Christian  communities.  Ephesus  was  a  great  center  of  Christian  life  and 
activity,  and  it  is  incredible  that  the  sacred  writings  of  the  deceased  evan 
gelists,  on  which  the  churches  had  come  to  rely  for  their  knowledge  of 
Christ  and  the  events  of  His  life,  should  not  have  found  their  way  to  this 


IN  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CHURCHES.         loi 

populous  city  of  Asia  Minor,  where  Christianity  had  been  planted  at  an 
early  date,  and  which  had  been  "a  conspicuous  scene  of  apostolic  labors". 
The  character  of  John's  Gospel  gives  abundant  evidence  that  he  was 
familiar  with  the  contents  of  these  earlier  writings.  The  things  which  he 
omits,  which  he  must  have  known  and  remembered  by  reason  of  his  con- 
stant fellowship  and  close  intimacy  with  Christ,  and  the  things  which  he 
narrates,  are  equally  conclusive  on  this  point.  He  carefully  avoids  travers- 
ing the  ground  which  the  other  Gospels  had  gone  over.  He  omits  all  of 
Christ's  parables,  and  gives  only  one  miracle  in  common  with  the  other 
biographers,  while  he  records  four  new  ones,  viz. :  the  turning  of  water  into 
wine,  the  raising  of  Lazarus  from  the  dead,  and  the  healing  of  the  impo- 
tent man  and  of  the  one  born  blind.  The  synoptists  limit  their  story 
almost  entirely  to  the  Galilean  ministry,  while  John's  Gospel  is  largely 
devoted  to  the  life  and  teachings  of  Christ  in  Judea. 

This  view  was  held  by  Eusebius.  He  said,  "  For  these  reasons  the 
Apostle  John,  it  is  said,  being  entreated  to  undertake  it,  wrote  the  account 
of  the  time  not  recorded  by  the  former  evangelists  *  *  *  giving  the 
deeds  of  Jesus  before  the  Baptist  was  cast  into  prison.  *  *  *  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  John  passed  by  in  silence  the  genealogy  of  our 
Lord  because  it  was  written  by  Matthew  and  Luke,  but  commenced  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  divinity  as  a  part  reserved  for  him  by  the  divine  Spirit, 
as  if  for  a  superior  ". 

If  John  had  intended  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  his  predecessors  in 
biographical  detail,  he  could  not  have  been  more  successful. 

But  the  purpose  and  supplementary  character  of  John's  Gospel  have  a 
deeper  meaning  still.  It  was  not  written  simply  to  correct  errors  which 
were  becoming  prevalent,  honorable  as  such  a  motive  would  have  been. 
Nor  was  it  written  and  sent  abroad  primarily  to  furnish  additional  bio- 
graphical material,  which  had  been  omitted  by  the  synoptists.  As  another 
has  said,  "  It  was  not  a  mere  patchwork  to  fill  up  vacant  spaces  ".  Its  sup- 
plementary character  is  seen  especially  in  the  kmd  of  material  which  its  rich 
chapters  have  preserved  for  Christ's  followers  of  all  the  ages.  Its  definite 
purpose,  its  supreme  purpose,  is  generally  believed  to  have  been  declared 
by  the  author  himself,  near  the  end  of  the  Gospel,  "And  many  other  signs 
truly  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  His  disciples,  which  are  not  written  in  this 
book ;  but  these  are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life  through  His  name  " 
(20:30,  31). 

The  confirmation  of  faith  in  the  Messiah  as  the  Son  of  God,  the  deepen- 
ing, the  developing,  the  enriching  of  the  life  of  the  disciples  of  Christ,  and 
so  of  the  churches  of  Christ,  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  aim  consciously 
and  constantly  present  in  the  mind  of  John  in  the  selection  of  his  material. 
It  was  preeminently  a  spiritual  Gospel.  It  is  no  disparagement  of  the  other 
(iospels  to  say  that  they  have  to  do  largely,  I  say  largely,  with  the  outward 
manifestation  of  Jesus,  His  genealogy.  His  birth.  His  boyhood.  His  outward 
associations,  the  events  of  His  life,  His  displays  of  miraculous  power,  that 


I02  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

which  was  visible  and  made  its  appeal  to  the  senses,  all  of  which  was 
necessary  to  give  to  the  world  a  real,  living,  historic  portrait  of  our  Lord. 
But  something  more  was  required  for  the  deeper  interpretation  of  His 
nature  and  spirit  and  mission.  Clement  of  Alexandria  said:  "John,  last, 
perceiving  that  the  bodily  things  had  been  made  manifest  in  the  Gospels, 
being  also  encouraged  by  his  intimate  friends,  and  moved  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  made  a  spiritual  GospeV\ 

That  John  was  especially  fitted  for  this  service  no  one  can  doubt.  His 
natural  characteristics,  his  special  intimacy  with  his  Master,  that  about 
him  that  caused  Christ  to  draw  him  into  the  inner  circle  of  His  friendships, 
to  His  very  bosom  at  the  farewell  supper,  and  that  made  him  forever  known 
as  "the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved",  and  also  his  now  mature  and  ripe 
experience  and  long  instruction  through  many  years  bythe  Spirit,  who  was 
promised  to  lead  receptive  minds  into  all  the  truth,  and  his  ever  deepening 
insight  into  the  profoundest  truths  of  revelation,  all  these  things  qualified 
John  in  a  preeminent  degree  for  the  preparation  of  that  treatise  which  should 
round  out  to  a  divine  completeness  the  canon  of  inspiration,  and  made  him 
"  the  greatest,  as  he  was  the  last  of  the  spiritual  teachers  of  the  Church  ". 
Had  the  Gospel  of  John  been  written  forty  years  earlier,  its  form  undoubt- 
edly would  have  been  different.  It  was  the  production  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
working  through  a  mind  which  had  had  a  rich,  full  experience  of  divine 
truth,  and  an  ever  growing  and  strengthening  apprehension  of  the  person 
of  Christ  as  well  as  of  that  life  of  God,  that  true  and  eternal  life,  which 
faith  in  Christ  generates  in  the  heart  of  the  believer. 

Alford  has  drawn  the  following  striking  contrast  between  the  work  of 
the  two  great  apostles,  Paul  and  John,  while  unfolding  the  true  aim  of  the 
latter:  "The  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  amidst  fightings  without  and 
fears  within,  built  in  his  argumentative  Epistles  the  outworks  of  that  temple 
of  which  his  still  greater  colleague  and  successor  was  chosen  noiselessly  to 
complete,  in  his  peaceful  old  age,  the  inner  and  holier  places ;  and  this  after 
all,  ranging  under  it  all  secondary  aims,  we  must  call  the  great  object  of 
the  evangelist — to  advance,  purify  from  error  and  strengthen  that  matured 
Christian  life  of  knowledge,  which  is  the  true  development  of  the  teaching 
of  the  Spirit  in  men,  and  which  the  latter  part  of  the  apostolic  period  wit- 
nessed in  its  full  vitality  ". 

The  supplementary  character,  the  superior  value,  the  crowning  place 
and  service  of  the  Gospel  of  John  have  been  recognized  by  the  friends  and 
foes  of  Christianity  alike.  This  Gospel  has  called  forth  the  fiercest  assaults 
of  unbelievers  who  have  looked  upon  it  as  the  very  citadel  of  the  Christian 
faith,  whose  capture  would  mean  the  overthrow  of  supernatural  religion. 
On  the  other  hand  it  has  made  its  appeal  successfully  to  the  intelligent 
faith  of  multitudes  of  devout  scholars,  and  has  found  its  confirmation  in  the 
deepening  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  to  which  it  has  ministered  as  from  a 
fresh  and  inexhaustible  reservoir.  Augustine  says  :  "  In  the  four  Gospels, 
or  rather  in  the  four  books  of  the  one  Gospel,  the  apostle  St.  John,  not 
undeservedly  with  reference  to  his  spiritual  understanding  compared  to  an 


IN  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CHURCHES.         103 

eagle,  has  lifted  higher  and  far  more  sublimely  than  the  other  three  his 
proclamation,  and  in  lifting  it  up  he  has  wished  our  hearts  also  to  be  Utted  ". 
An  old  Latin  hymn,  referring  to  the  eagle-character  of  John  reads : 

"  Bird  of  God  I  with  boundless  flight 
Soaring  far  beyond  the  height 
Of  the  bard  or  prophet  old  ; 
Truth  fulfilled  and  truth  to  be- 
Never  purer  mystery 
Did  a  purer  tongue  unfold". 

Origen  says:  "We  may  presume  then  to  say  that  the  Gospels  are  the 
first  fruits  of  all  the  Scriptures,  and  the  first  fruits  of  the  Gospels  is  that  of 
John,  into  whose  meaning  no  man  can  enter  unless  he  has  reclined  upon  the 
bosom  of  Jesus",  The  following  is  the  confession  of  Claudius:  "When  1 
read  John,  it  always  seems  to  me  that  I  see  him  before  me,  reclining  at  the 
last  supper  on  the  bosom  of  his  Lord,  as  if  his  angel  held  the  light  for  me, 
and  at  certain  parts  would  place  his  arm  around  me,  and  whisper  something 
in  my  ear  ".     Luther  speaks  of  John  as  "  the  one  true,  tender,  main  Gospel  ". 

Ernesti  calls  this  Gospel  "  the  heart  of  Christ".  Biederman  character- 
izes it  as  "  the  most  wonderful  of  all  religious  works  ".  De  Wette  says  of 
its  expressions:  "They  glow  with  a  lustre  more  than  earthly".  Herder 
exclaims  in  irrepressible  admiration :  "  It  was  written  by  the  hand  of  an 
angel".  Kaufman  denominates  John  "the  Plato  of  the  inspired  circle". 
Lange  affirms  that  "  since  Irenaeus  it  has  remained  for  the  sons  of  the 
apostolic  spirit,  the  crown  of  the  apostolic  Gospels".  Tholuck  declares; 
"  This  Gospel  speaks  a  language  to  which  no  parallel  whatever  is  to  be 
found  in  the  whole  compass  of  literature ;  such  childlike  simplicity,  with 
such  contemplative  profundity;  such  life  and  such  deep  rest;  such  sadness 
and  such  severity;  and  above  all,  such  a  breath  of  love".  Farrar  says: 
"The  first  three  evangelists  give  us  diverse  aspects  of  one  glorious  land- 
scape. St.  John  pours  over  that  landscape  a  flood  of  heavenly  sunshine, 
which  seems  to  transfigure  its  very  character,  though  every  feature  of  the 
landscape  remains  the  same  ".  Again  Herder  says :  "That  little  book  is  a  still 
deeper  sea,  in  which  the  sun  and  stars  are  mirrored ;  and  if  there  are  eternal 
truths  (and  such  there  are)  for  the  human  race,  they  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Gospel  of  John  ".  Hovey  says :  "  For,  verily,  beneath  the  tranquil  surface 
of  this  Gospel,  which  is  filled  to  so  great  an  extent  with  what  the  Lord  Him- 
self said,  are  deep  and  fervid  ocean-currents  of  holy  life  and  love,  which  no 
one  can  undertake  to  explore  and  describe  without  being  made  to  feel  the 
dimness  of  his  vision  and  the  feebleness  of  his  speech  ".  And  Godet  says  : 
"  It  was  he  who  bequeathed  to  the  world  in  his  three  works  the  three-fold 
picture  of  the  life  in  God;  in  the  person  of  Chiist  (the  Gospel);  in  the 
Christian  (the  Epistles) ;  and  in  the  Church  (the  Apocalypse).  He  anticipated 
more  perfectly  than  any  other  the  festival  of  the  eternal  life  ". 

This  wonderful,  profound,  mature,  superior,  superhuman,  angelic  Gospel 
may  be  said  to  be,  then,  preeminently  the  Gospel  of  life,  of  life  through  belief 
in  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  not  life  apart  from   Christ,  but  life  through 


ro4  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

faith  in  Christ,  in  His  revealed  nature  and  mission  and  power,  life  through 
the  receiving  of  Christ  into  the  soul,  through  personal  union  with  Christ, 
life  which  has  its  origin  in  Christ  and  its  sustenance  and  development  in 
Christ,  which  is  truly  the  life  of  Christ,  which  is  the  life  of  God  who  only 
hath  eternal  life,  life  for  the  individual,  life  for  the  church,  and  life  for  the 
world. 

This  Gospel  sets  forth  the  divine  person  of  Christ  and  the  sacrificial 
work  of  Christ  more  clearly  and  fully  than  is  done  anywhere  else.  It  begins 
with  His  preexistence  and  eternal  oneness  with  God,  and  ascribes  to  Him 
the  creation  of  all  things.  It  goes  on  to  speak  of  Him  as  the  Incarnate 
Word,  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  the  ladder  of 
communication  between  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  teacher  of  the  new  spir- 
itual birth,  of  which  baptism  is  the  beautifully  appropriate  symbol  (an  inter- 
pretation required  by  the  oriental  form  of  expression,  clearly  taught  by  the 
prayer  book  of  the  Church  of  England,  where  it  defines  baptism  as  "  an  out- 
ward and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual  grace  given  unto  us  ",  and 
necessitated  by  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  Christian  religion,  which  is  not  a 
mechanism  to  be  manipulated  by  human  hands,  but  a  life  imparted  directly 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  whose  disciples  are  new-born  "not  of  the. will  of  the 
flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God  "). 

And,  further,  this  Gospel  represents  Christ  as  the  water  of  life,  the 
promised  Messiah,  the  quickener  of  the  soul,  the  just  and  final  judge,  the 
light  of  the  world,  the  true  manna  from  heaven,  the  author  of  true  spiritual 
freedom,  the  good  shepherd  who  giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep,  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life,  the  architect  and  builder  of  the  heavenly  mansions,  the 
adequate  manifestation  of  the  Father,  the  living  vine,  the  sender  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  rightful  possessor  of  divine  glory  and  sharer  of  it  with  His 
disciples,  the  confessed  King  in  the  realm  of  truth,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
the  willing  victim  upon  the  cross  of  error  and  shame  ;  and  then  it  concludes, 
as  it  began,  with  the  confession  of  Thomas,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God  " ;  and 
upon  these  great  truths,  and  upon  faith  in  these  truths,  it  posits  the  acquisi- 
tion and  the  continuance  of  spiritual  life  in  the  soul  of  man.  It  unfolds 
with  remarkable  clearness  and  fullness  the  deeper  spiritual  verities  of  the 
person  and  the  mission  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  then  says — believe  these  veri- 
ties, accept  Him  in  whom  they  all  centre,  and  you  shall  have  life.  "These 
are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life  through  His  name  ". 

The  word  "life  "  is  found  more  than  forty  times  in  John's  Gospel,  and 
in  most  significant  connections.  "  In  Him  was  life  and  the  life  was  the 
light  of  men  ".  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlast- 
ing life  ".  "  The  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life  ".  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  Me  that  ye  might 
have  life  ".  "  I  am  that  bread  of  life  ".  "  Except  ye  eat  of  the  flesh  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  and  drink  His  blood  ",  that  is,  except  ye  believe  in  a  Saviour 
crucified  for  you,  "ye  have  no  life  in  you".     "  I  am  come  that  they  might 


IN  THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CHURCHES.        105 

have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  abundantly  ",  not  "  more  abundantly  " 
as  the  received  version  has  it,  for  this  spiritual  life,  which  Christ  came  to 
bring,  has  no  existence  in  the  unregenerate  heart. 

"  My  sheep  hear  My  voice  and  they  follow  Me ;  and  I  give  unto  them 
eternal  life ;  and  they  shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any  man  pluck  them 
out  of  my  hand  ".  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ;  he  that  believeth  in 
Me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live  ".  "  I  am  the  way  and  the 
truth  and  the  life  ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me  ".  "As  the 
branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself  except  it  abide  in  the  vine  (and  draw 
every  moment  its  life  from  the  vine)  no  more  can  ye,  except  ye  abide  in 
Me ".  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee,  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent ".  "  These  are  written  that  ye 
might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing 
ye  might  have  life  through  His  name  "  , 

These,  and  many  other  passages  show  us  the  tremendous  emphasis 
which  John's  Gospel  lays  upon  spiritual  life,  its  source  and  its  suste- 
nance, its  origin  and  its  development,  as  born  of  faith,  and  kept  alive  by 
faith,  in  the  preexistent,  divine,  only-begotten,  crucified,  risen  Son  of  God. 
It  is  this  that  distinguishes  this  Gospel  from  the  others;  that  gives  to  it  its 
exalted  character,  its  transcendent  richness  and  its  marvellous  power.  Its 
lofty  spiritual  truths  kindle  in  the  soul  aspirations  after  greater  nearness  to 
God.  Its  profound  spiritual  philosophy  deepens  and  purifies  the  currents 
of  life.  Its  sublime  revelations  of  the  Saviour,  which  must  ever  in  this  finite 
sphere  be  clothed  with  mystery,  lift  us  up  out  of  the  realm  of  sense  and  of 
material  things  into  a  new  atmosphere  and  introduce  us  to  a  new  order  of 
being.  "  The  Word  was  with  God  and  was  God  ".  "  The  Word  was  made 
flesh  ".  "  We  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  the 
Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth  ".  In  the  light  of  these  passages  we  get  new 
conceptions  of  sonship  with  God,  its  privilege  and  its  meaning,  its  dignity 
and  its  obligation,  and  we  say  with  the  apostle  Paul,  "Beholding  as  in  a 
glass  the  glory  of  the  Lord  we  are  transfigured  into  the  same  image  from 
glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  ". 

Is  there  any  aspect  of  essential,  saving  truth  that  is  not  clearly  presented 
in  John's  Gospel,  and  in  some  instances  more  clearly  than  in  any  other 
inspired  book .''  Is  there  any  proper  motive  to  Christian  faith  and  obedience 
that  it  does  not  appeal  to  with  the  utmost  tenderness  and  fidelity  ?  Is  there 
any  chord  of  the  renewed  heart  that  it  does  not  touch  with  the  hand  of  a 
Master  ? 

How  beautifully  it  sets  forth  the  simplicity  of  saving  faith !  As  the  bit- 
ten Israelite  looked  to  the  brazen  serpent,  so  may  the  sin-conscious  soul 
look  to  Christ  and  be  healed.  How  impressively,  and  for  all  places  and 
times,  does  it  declare  the  spiritual  nature  of  worship  !  "  God  is  a  Spirit, 
and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth  ".  How 
strikingly  does  it  emphasize  the  necessity  of  a  living  and  perpetual  union 
with  Christ  in  order  to  the  possession  and  retention  of  spiritual  life,  and  the 
production  of  spiritual  fruit  I     "  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches  ;  he  that 


io6  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

abideth  in  Me  and  I  in  Him,  the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit,  for  without 
Me  ye  can  do  nothing  ".  How  persuasively  does  it  inculcate  the  spirit  of 
absolute  and  perpetual  obedience  to  Christ !  "  My  sheep  hear  My  voice 
and  they  follow  Me  ".  "  If  ye  love  Me,  keep  My  commandments  ".  How 
tenderly  does  it  plead  for  the  intimate  fellowship  and  unbroken  oneness  of 
all  the  followers  of  Christ !  "  That  they  all  may  be  one  ;  as  Thou,  Father, 
art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us ;  that  the  world 
may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me  ".  How  strongly  and  positively  it 
asserts  the  reality  and  blessedness  of  the  future  life,  and  the  eternal  safety 
of  all  who  put  their  trust  in  Jesus  Christ!  "In  My  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions ;  if  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you  (if  there  were  no 
future  life,  no  conscious  dwelling  with  God  in  peace  and  felicity  after  this 
life  is  over,  I  would  not  have  left  you  in  ignorance),  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you  ",  words  which  we  repeat  for  their  comfort  by  the  bedside  of 
the  dying,  and  for  our  comfort  by  the  open  graves  of  our  precious  dead. 

But  why  need  I  further  enumerate?  To  speak  of  all  the  passages  in 
this  wonderful  Gospel  that  minister  to  the  strengthening  of  the  Christian 
faith  and  the  deepening  of  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul,  would  be  to  bring  the 
whole  book  before  you,  chapter  by  chapter,  and  verse  by  verse. 

Let  the  ministry  of  today  breathe  constantly  the  atmosphere  of  this 
Gospel,  be  found  often  in  this  holy  of  holies  of  revealed  truth,  sit  long  at 
the  feet  of  him  who  sat  long  at  the  feet  of  the  Master,  and  absorbed  so  much 
of  His  spirit  and  message,  and  then  blank  Agnosticism  and  lifeless  Arianism, 
blind  Naturalism  and  icy  Formalism  will  be  unknown  in  our  pulpits.  Let  the 
churches  give  themselves  to  the  diligent  and  prayerful  study  of  this  Fourth 
Gospel,  and  then  the  fatal  materialism  of  this  materiahstic  age,  and  the 
worldiness  which  has  crept  in  with  stealthy  footsteps  and  with  deadening 
power,  and  the  unspirituality  and  apathy  which  cripple  the  benevolence, 
curtail  the  efforts  and  limit  the  influence  of  our  churches,  will  be  driven  out 
at  once  and  forever.  The  Gospel  of  John  is  the  divine  corrective  of  all  the 
ills  that  afflict  our  modern  Christianity. 

Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke  says :  "  With  the  materialism,  the  sensuality, 
the  pride  of  our  age,  Christianity  stands  in  conflict.  With  the  altruism,  the 
humanity,  the  sympathy  of  our  age,  Christianity  must  stand  in  loving  and 
wise  alliance.  A  simpler  creed  and  a  nobler  life  will  prepare  the  way  for  a 
renaissance  of  religion  greater  and  more  potent  than  the  world  has  known 
for  centuries.  It  seems  as  if  we  stood  on  the  brightening  border  of  the  new 
day.  The  watchword  of  its  coming  is  the  personal  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
in  whom  we  find  the  ideal  man  and  the  real  God  ". 


•SOME    CHARACTERISTICS    OF    THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO   ST. 

JOHN. 

BY   RKA'.   AI^KXANDKR   ]VrcICKNZ;i>i:,   D.    D., 

Pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Congregational,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  anything 
thoroughly,  but  to  gather  up  some  of  the  peculiarities  and  characteristics 
of  this  Gospel  as  compared  with  the  others.  The  question  of  authorship  I 
do  not  consider.  I  am  myself  persuaded  that  it  was  written  by  the  man 
whose  name  it  bears.  There  is  the  historical  evidence  which  is  so  old  that 
you  can  get  very  near  to  the  time  when  it  was  written.  Then,  too,  there  is 
one  thing  I  should  think  every  one  would  feel,  that  it  was  written  by  an 
honest  man.  It  was  not  invented ;  it  was  something  that  had  been.  A 
man  could  not  think  it  out  any  more  than  he  could  think  out  a  sunrise  and 
describe  it,  if  he  had  never  seen  one ;  or  a  friendship,  if  he  had  never 
known  one.  Again,  it  needed  a  man  of  very  rare  qualities.  For  instance, 
we  are  all  familiar  with  the  fact  that  St.  John  never  mentions  himself  by 
name,  and  he  never  mentions  the  name  of  the  mother  of  Jesus.  He  loved 
to  call  himself  the  "disciple  whom  Jesus  loved".  That  is  the  man  we 
think  of  when  we  speak  of  the  authorship  of  this  Gospel.  He  dealt  with 
the  tenderest  things  of  life,  the  most  sacred  things  ;  he  dealt  with  the  prin- 
ciples and  facts  of  life,  but  if  he  had  been  nothing  but  a  loved  and  loving 
man,  his  Gospels  and  Epistles  would  hardly  have  been  like  these  we  have. 
He  was  a  man  to  be  loved,  it  is  true,  but  he  was  more  than  that,  he  was 
also  a  son  of  thunder.  It  needed  just  that  combination  to  make  a  man  go 
safely  among  the  truths  which  he  traversed  and  present  the  most  tender 
things,  and  yet  in  such  a  way  as  to  commend  themselves  to  thoughtful, 
exacting  men.  While  we  speak  of  this  Gospel  as  the  Gospel  of  the  heart,  it 
is  also  the  Gospel  of  the  head  and  hand  ;  it  stands  on  the  ground,  while  at 
the  same  time  it  ascends  into  heaven.  St.  John  is  commonly  spoken  of  as 
an  eagle  which  is  able  to  soar  to  the  greatest  heights.  But  he  had  his  nest 
in  a  tree  that  was  very  firmly  rooted  in  this  world,  and  if  you  think  of  him 
only  in  the  attitude  of  a  lover  you  mistake  the  man.  Then,  too,  he  had 
special  advantages  in  being  very  near  to  our  Lord.  The  nearer  he  came  to 
Christ  the  more  reason  he  had  to  love  and  admire  Him.  Most  great  char- 
acters are  great  because  of  their  distance.  When  we  come  up  to  them  they 
lose  some  of  their  superb  proportions.  There  is  that  old  saying,  which  I 
do  not  like  to  use,  that  "A  man  is  never  a  hero  to  his  valet  ".  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  no  man  is  great  who  is  not  great  to  his  valet.  You  have  to 
be  great  to  the  man  who  stands  close  to  you  and  knows  the  secrets  of  your 

♦Delivered  at  the  Second  Conference,  held  at  the  Mathewson  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
November  ii,  1403. 

107 


io8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

life  before  you  can  be  considered  truly  great.  And  John,  in  standing  thus 
close  to  Christ,  marks  the  greatness  which  increased  as  he  came  to  know 
Him  more  intimately. 

Again,  as  my  old  friend,  Dr.  Peabody,  was  in  the  habit  of  saying,  one 
thing  that  bears  witness  that  John  wrote  the  Gospel  is  that  it  was  written 
by  an  old  man.  A  peculiarity  of  the  old  man  is  that  he  notices  small 
things.  In  this  Gospel  you  will  find  more  of  what  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
calling  the  trivial  things  of  life.  I  suppose  if  he  was  writing  the  account  of 
the  feast  at  Cana,  a  young  man  would  have  said,  "And  there  were  set  some 
water  jars  there  which  were  large  ".  John  says  there  were  six  water  pots  of 
stone,  and  that  they  held  two  or  three  firkins  apiece.  In  the  same  way,  a 
young  man  would  have  treated  the  last  miracle  of  our  Lord  at  the  Sea  of 
Galilee ;  he  would  have  said  that  they  (the  fishermen)  were  quite  a  little 
distance  off  the  land ;  an  old  man  would  say  "they  were  about  200  furlongs, 
I  noticed  ".  "  There  were  a  multitude  of  fish  "  ;  "  there  were  153  fishes,  and 
they  were  big  ones  ",  the  old  man  would  say.  "  Great  "  is  a  relative  term ; 
he  did  not  mean  that  they  were  large  absolutely,  but  compared  with  the  fish 
usually  taken  in  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  And  when  this  writer  says  there  were 
153,  and  that  they  were  unusually  large  ones,  you  see  the  fisherman  is 
betrayed,  and  John  was  a  fisherman.  Such  little  traits  as  these  go  with  the 
historical  evidence.  The  Gospel  was  evidently  written  by  a  man  with  the 
characteristics  of  this  disciple. 

I  do  not  remember  having  seen  it  anywhere,  although  some  of  you 
may  have  seen  it  elsewhere,  yet  it  is  borne  in  upon  me  that  there  is  one  per- 
son who  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  writing  of  this  Gospel  whose  name 
is  not  mentioned  in  it,  and  that  is  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  mother  of  our  Lord. 
Now  when  Christ  was  upon  the  cross,  apparently,  as  far  as  we  can  read  the 
story,  Mary  was  not  near,  and  this  disciple  went  and  brought  her,  and  from 
the  cross  Jesus  commended  His  mother  to  this  disciple,  and  this  disciple  to 
the  mother,  and  then  comes  that  very  interesting  line  :  "  and  from  that  hour 
that  disciple  took  her  to  his  own  home."  What  do  you  suppose  they  did 
then  ?  What  did  they  talk  about  ?  They  talked  about  the  one  person  in  all 
the  world  who  was  dearest  to  their  hearts.  They  talked  about  what  had 
just  taken  place,  and  the  mother  heart  which  had  enabled  her  to  under- 
stand and  enter  into  the  spirit  of  her  Son  was  opened  before  the  young 
man  with  whom  she  was  living.  In  the  morning  and  at  night  they  talked 
about  Him.  Now  if  you  wished  to  write  the  biography  of  any  great  man 
you  would  go  where  he  lived ;  you  would  go  into  the  house,  look  at  the 
gfrounds,  talk  with  the  neighbors,  try  to  get  into  what  we  call  by  the  indefin- 
ite term  the  atmosphere  of  the  man  and  the  place.  For  you  can  not  write  a 
man's  biography  unless  you  know  the  man  himself,  and  the  conditions  of 
his  life  and  thought.  That  is  the  reason  most  biographies  are  of  so  little 
use ;  they  can  tell  when  a  man  was  born  and  when  he  died,  but  they  do  not 
give  you  that  indefinable  trait  which  you  get  when  you  come  close  to  the 
man.  And  this  belongs  to  our  Lord  more  than  any  one  else.  It  is  not 
alone  what  He  did  or  said,  but  in  what  way  He  said  it  and  for  what  reason. 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  109 

We  sometimes  represent  Him  with  a  halo  over  His  head,  but  that  is  a  poor 
thing,  though  it  illustrates  what  I  mean.  And  no  one  knew  Him  like  His 
mother.  When  you  get  a  heart  that  was  as  responsive  as  John's  was,  and 
when  they  could  talk  together  for  weeks,  or  perhaps  years,  her  thoughts 
would  become  his.  It  seems  to  me  that  all  through,  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end,  there  can  be  traced  the  word,  spirit,  and  influence  of  that  mother 
through  whose  soul  there  passes  a  sword  when  1  le  was  crucified.  1  was 
not  to  speak  about  the  authorship  of  the  Gospel,  and  yet  these  things  carry 
us  into  the  very  spirit  of  it. 

St.  John's  Gospel  is  not  a  book  of  mathematics  or  philosophy.  It  is 
the  story  of  a  great  human  life  expressed  in  insufficient  terms,  and  you 
never  can  read  it  unless  you  have  something  a  thousand  times  better  than  a 
dictionary  ;  you  must  have  a  heart.  It  is  itself  a  heart,  and  it  must  be  read 
by  the  heart  and  translated  by  the  heart.  I  believe  that  those  who  have 
read  it  with  the  heart  and  translated  it  into  heart  have  never  doubted  it  or 
its  authorship.  A  man  who  has  had  the  spirit  to  go  through  it  and  enter 
into  it  finds  a  witness  in  himself  and  believes  because  he  must  believe-  I 
call  it  the  Gospel  of  the  heart,  and  so  it  is,  but  it  is  even  then  of  a  very  sub- 
stantial character.  The  apostles  had  to  put  together  two  things  that  had 
never  been  put  together  before.  They  had  no  precedent.  They  had  to 
show  a  person  who  carried  himself  in  this  world  as  a  common  man,  in  whom 
was  the  living  and  eternal  Ciod.  z\s  far  as  literature  is  concerned,  there  has 
never  been  a  problem  that  approached  this  which  was  set  before  these  men, 
one  of  whom  was  a  fisherman,  another  a  tax  collector,  another  a  doctor,  and 
the  business  of  the  other  we  do  not  know.  They  had  to  make  books  so 
substantial  that  they  could  found  churches  upon  them,  and  men  could  fashion 
their  lives  by  them.  And  how  finely  they  have  done  it.  Some  years  ago, 
when  I  was  younger  and  knew  more  than  I  do  now,  I  became  a  lecturer  in 
a  theological  seminar}'.  I  knew  that  if  I  was  going  to  accomplish  anything 
I  had  to  be  original.  So  I  tried  to  be  original  in  this  lectureship.  I  pro- 
posed to  tell  the  young  men  that  I  wanted  each  one  to  take  a  blank  sheet  of 
paper  and  rule  it  into  three  columns,  and  in  the  first  column  they  should 
put  down  every  passage  in  the  New  Testament  where  Christ  was  repre- 
sented simply  as  a  man  ;  in  the  second  column  they  should  put  down  every 
passage  representing  Christ  as  God,  and  in  the  third  the  passages  repre- 
senting the  union  of  the  two.  Well,  so  far  as  presenting  Him  as  the  (iod- 
man,  I  easily  filled  that  column,  and  so  far  as  presenting  Him  as  God 
alone,  I  filled  that  column  with  ease,  but  I  never  have  been  able  to  find  the 
first  entry  to  put  in  the  first  colunin.  I  could  not  find  a  passage  in  the  four 
Gospels  which  represents  Jesus  Christ  as  simply  a  man.  If  any  of  you 
know  such  a  passage,  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  that  I  may  get  something  in 
that  column.  Perhaps  you  say,  "  Why,  He  was  tired  one  day  and  while  on 
His  way  through  Samaria  sat  down  on  a  well  ".  Is  that  the  whole  of  the 
narrative  ?  You  must  read  it  all,  you  know.  You  might  as  well  take  one  of 
the  pipes  out  of  this  organ,  and  get  a  boy  to  blow  it,  and  say  that  is  the 
organ,  as  to  take  a  single  sentence  out  of  a  narrative  and  say  that  that  is 


110  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  whole.  When  you  write  a  letter,  you  insist  that  the  man  shall  read  it  all 
the  way  through.  Now  you  will  find  that  every  heresy  that  is  in  the  church, 
or  that  is  coming  into  the  church,  rests  upon  the  principle  of  taking  a  single 
instrument  out  of  a  band  and  then  insisting  that  that  is  the  band.  Why 
stop  at  the  place  where  it  says  that  Christ  was  tired  ?  Go  on.  Presently 
He  speaks  to  the  woman  who  had  come  there  to  draw  water,  and  He  speaks 
such  words  as  from  the  creation  of  the  world  had  never  been  spoken,  and 
have  never  been  spoken  since  by  any  one :  "  The  water  that  I  shall  give 
you  shall  be  in  you  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  everlasting  life  ". 
That  is  God.     It  is  not  a  tired  man  sitting  by  Jacob's  well. 

Well,  He  was  in  the  fisherman's  boat,  and  "  being  weary  He  put  His 
head  on  the  cushion  and  went  to  sleep  ".  Why  do  you  stop  there  ?  When 
the  waves  began  to  roll  and  the  storm  to  increase  and  the  boat  to  begin  to 
sink  they  called  Him ;  He  stood  up,  He  spoke  to  the  tempest  and  the 
tempest  became  a  calm.  He  breathed  upon  the  waters  and  the  waters  were 
as  quiet  as  the  floor.  No  mere  man  there.  If  the  man  was  asleep  on  the 
cushion.  He  was  more  when  He  stilled  the  storm. 

Let  me  give  you  another  instance  where  the  man  very  easily  appears. 
He  is  on  the  cross  ;  three  are  hanging  side  by  side.  They  are  dying ;  surely 
there  is  the  man.  Read  the  letter  through,  please.  This  man  draws  to 
Himself  the  attention  of  a  fellow  dying  at  His  side.  This  man  looks  to 
Him.  His  gaze  is  the  gaze  of  a  dying  man.  With  some  poor  blind  faith 
he  prays,  "  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  comest  into  Thy  kingdom  ". 
There  never  has  been  a  man  since  the  beginning  of  the  world  who  would 
have  said  what  Jesus  said  under  these  circumstances.  The  best  man  you 
know  would  have  said,  "  My  friend,  let  us  both  pray  to  the  Father ". 
What  did  this  man  say  ?  "  My  poor,  dying  friend,  I  shall  be  in  paradise 
before  night,  and  I  will  take  you  there  with  me."  That  is  not  a  man,  is  it.'' 
I  have  nothing  for  my  first  column.  Do  you  think  of  anything?  And 
how  does  it  happen  ?  In  vain  do  you  try  to  separate  what  God  has  joined 
together.  In  the  words  that  were  read  to  us,  "  The  word  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us  and  we  beheld  His  glory,  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of 
the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth  ".     That  is  Divine  life. 

Now  we  must  expect  some  peculiarities  in  this  Gospel.  If  you  write  a 
book,  you  do  not  copy  what  some  one  else  has  written  and  try  to  publish  it 
as  your  own ;  but  you  try  to  state  something  that  is  your  own,  something 
that  you  have  found  out  yourself.  Now  there  were  three  Gospels  written 
before  John  began,  and  to  copy  them  would  be  a  waste  of  parchment. 
Luke's  Gospel  was  written  by  a  scientific  man,  a  physician.  The  other 
two  Gospels  were  written  by  different  men  with  a  different  purpose.  John's 
■was  written  a  long  time  afterwards.  He  certainly  might  mention  some 
things  in  a  different  way,  but  he  would  have  to  go  over  the  same  ground, 
just  as  they  do  in  school.  If  you  go  into  your  lowest  classes  here  today 
you  find  that  they  are  teaching  the  alphabet  and  the  multiplication  table. 
So,  if  you  turn  to  your  grammar  school,  your  high  school,  and  university, 
you  will  find  the  same  things  being  taught,  the  alphabet  and  the  multiplica- 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  in 

tion  table,  but  you  will  also  find  the  higher  grade  of  scholars  and,  perhaps, 
older  men  teaching.  So,  here,  while  John  uses  the  same  alphabet  and  mul- 
tiplication table,  he  teaches  it  in  higher  branches,  for  he  is  speaking  in 
advance  of  that  which  has  been  written.  You  will  find  that  John  takes  the 
initial  and  essential  points  of  the  Gospel  and  carries  them  further.  John 
says  nothing  about  the  nativity.  Why  should  he  .■*  That  has  been  described. 
But  he  presents  the  incarnation.  The  nativity  is  the  primary  school ;  the 
incarnation  is  for  the  university.  The  Gloria  in  Excelsis  is  the  beginning  of 
the  incarnation.  Why  should  he  write  the  nativity .-'  You  have  it  from  the 
hand  of  a  scientific  man  that  has  done  it  as  well  as  John  could  do  it.  You 
have  the  changing  of  a  man's  life  in  the  earlier  Gospels ;  you  come  to 
John  and  you  have  Nicodemus  told  to  be  born  again.  You  have  redemp- 
tion and  forgiveness  in  the  other  Gospels,  but  John  gives  you  "  the  Lamb  of 
God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  That  is  Brown  University  ; 
that  is  the  highest  reach  of  the  thought  and  the  method  of  it.  You  find  the 
method  of  redemption  described  in  the  three  Gospels,  but  you  find  John 
illustrating  this.  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even 
so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up  ".  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He 
gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not 
perish  but  have  everlasting  life."  That  is  the  extension  of  the  truth,  which 
in  its  simple  principles  appears  in  the  other  Gospels.  But  it  is  no  more 
different  than  Brown  University  is  different  from  the  kindergarten.  I  think 
that  is  as  far  as  I  should  go  upon  this  part  of  my  theme. 

I  ask  you  to  notice  some  peculiarities  in  this  Gospel,  some  special 
things  that  are  not  mentioned  in  the  others.  I  venture  the  statement  that 
these  peculiarities  are  simply  a  development  and  not  inconsistencies.  I 
have  stated  that  you  have  in  the  first  three  Gospels  the  primary  school,  and 
in  the  fourth  Gospel  Brown  University.  And  they  are  the  same,  only  one  is 
a  little  higher,  a  little  older,  and  may  express  the  idea  more  accurately. 
The  readers  are  more  advanced  and  have  more  advanced  truths. 

Now  it  is  a  very  singular  thing  that  John  opens  his  Gospel  with  the 
same  words  which  were  used  at  the  beginning  of  the  Bible.  It  seems  to  me 
remarkable  that  the  first  three  things  that  are  asserted  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Bible  are  the  same  three  things  that  are  asserted  in  the  very  beginning 
of  John's  Gospel.  Now  how  do  you  account  for  that?  No  other  writer 
ever  did  that.  "In  the  beginning  ",  was  John's  opening.  "In  the  begin- 
ning God  ".  John  says,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word  ",  and  "  the  Word 
was  with  God,  and  the  Word  WAS  God."  Genesis  further  says,  "  In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  ".  John  says,  "  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was 
God.  The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things  were  made  by 
Him,  and  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made."  Thus  the 
first  three  declarations  of  Genesis  are  the  first  three  declarations  of  St. 
John.  And  further,  they  are  written  for  the  same  reason.  John  is  giving 
the  university  account  of  what  is  given  in  Genesis.  He  is  showing  what 
the  world  was  made  for  and  Who  made  it.     He  is  entering  into  the  mystery 


112  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  the  Divine  being,  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost ;  it  is  God,  but  it  is  also 
the  Son.  Tlie  New  Testament  teaches  that  it  is  the  Son  who  is  the  creator, 
and  St.  John  grasped  that  truth,  which  the  apostles  repeated  after  him.  So 
that  when  you  come  later  on  into  the  Book  of  Revelation,  you  find  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,  and  a  new  Jerusalem,  and  a  new  life,  and  a  new 
light.  John  is  writing  the  story  of  creation.  I  think  that  is  a  remarkable 
fact.  The  narrative  in  Genesis  is  the  most  remarkable  thing  in  literature. 
The  writer  was  describing  things  which  took  place  long  before  he  was  born. 
He  did  it  with  wonderful  accuracy.  Some  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to 
speak  of  this,  and  chancing  to  meet  a  distinguished  geologist  spoke  of  it  to 
him.  He  finally  said,  half  impatiently,  "  I  believe  that  the  first  living  thing 
that  was  created  was  a  fish."  Well,  I  did  not  feel  that  I  knew  much  on  the 
subject,  so  I  kept  silent.  I  had  been  quoting  the  Bible,  and  here  was  the 
answer  of  science.  When  I  reached  my  home  I  went  to  my  Bible  and 
looked  the  matter  up.  I  found  that  my  friend  w^as  right,  for,  back  in  the 
Book  of  Genesis,  this  particular  honor  was  given  to  the  fish,  and  this  was 
also  the  last  word  of  science.  Now,  if  you  can  tell  me  how  the  unknown 
writer  of  Genesis  knew  that  the  first  living  thing  created  was  a  fish,  you  will 
solve  the  greatest  problem  in  the  literature  of  the  world. 

Now  if  you  will  take  your  Gospel  of  John  and  compare  it  with  the 
Synoptics  you  will  find  some  surprising  things.  You  will  find  some  notable 
omissions.  John  has  nothing  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  He  has  nothing  of  the  Baptism  or  Temptation  of  Jesus.  He  has 
scarcely  anything  of  John  the  Baptist's  ministry.  He  omits  some  of  the 
best  parables  that  Jesus  spoke.  He  omits  the  parable  of  the  virgins  and 
the  account  of  that  great  day  of  judgment  recorded  in  Matthew.  All  very 
substantial  things,  as  you  can  see.  John  also  omits  to  say  that  Jesus  took 
little  children  in  His  arms  and  blessed  them.  The  parable  of  the  Good 
Samaritan,  which  we  love  so  much,  he  leaves  out.  Perhaps  the  fact  that 
they  had  been  told  was  a  good  reason,  but  he  did  repeat  some  things  that 
the  others  said.  He  made  a  choice  of  those  things  which  best  suited  his 
purpose,  as  he  registered  the  account  of  the  new  creation  by  Jesus  Christ 
Himself ;  the  creation  of  a  new  man  for  a  new  world. 

I  want  for  a  little  while  to  notice  some  things  in  John's  Gospel  that  we 
do  not  find  anywhere  else.  The  first  thing,  which  has  already  been  men- 
tioned in  your  discussion  today,  is  the  account  of  the  miracle  at  Cana 
of  Galilee.  We  might  say  that  is  a  thing  John  should  leave  out.  It  was 
not  of  any  consequence,  the  whole  thing  was  ethically  a  mistake.  Why  did 
he  put  it  in }  It  means  that  Christ  came  down  into  the  home  life.  And, 
after  all,  the  comfort  that  we  have  in  our  own  homes  goes  far  to  make  up 
the  real  value  of  life  and  the  pleasure  of  living.  Think  for  a  moment  of  the 
circumstances.  Here  is  this  wedding,  and  the  bride  was  probably  a  kins- 
woman of  our  Lord.  He  had  been  invited,  and  had  taken  several  men  with 
Him,  and  as  usually  happens  under  these  circumstances,  the  wine  gave  out. 
We  might  at  first  think  that  was  not  a  great  matter,  but  it  was.  It  was  the 
one  day  of  that  young  girl's  life.     It  would  never  have  done  to  have  the 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  113 

wine  fail ;  it  would  have  been  a  life-long  disgrace.  She  would  never  have 
gotten  over  it.  Perhaps  Jesus  felt  in  a  measure  responsible  for  it.  He 
certainly  pitied  her,  and  came  to  her  rescue  as  only  He  could  do,  and  to 
save  her  cheeks  from  reddening  with  shame,  he  reddened  the  water  into 
wine. 

What  is  the  next  incident?     That  is  much  more  important — an  inter- 
view   with   a   wise    coward,   but    still   a    coward,   who    came    by    night, 
when  no  one  could  see  him,  to  converse  with  the  Lord.     He  thought  well 
of   himself,   but   the   first  thing  that  Christ  taught  him   was  that  he  was 
wrong.     Nicodemus   said :     "  I   would   like  to    talk   with    you   about   the 
Kingdom   of   Heaven  ".     Jesus   said  substantially,    "  It   is   not    any   use, 
you  are  not  going  there.     The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  that  way,  and  you 
are  going  this  way.     If  you  really  want  to  go  there,  you  will  have  to  take 
this  road  and  turn  your  back  upon  that ".     Well,  that  was  a  pretty  serious 
thing  to  say  to  any  man.     I  think  I  have  paraphrased  it  a  little.     What, 
did  Jesus  say  ?     "  My  dear  sir,  if  you  are  going  to  be  a  child  of  God,  you 
will  have  to  go  back  and  be  born  over  again  ".     There  are  only  two  ways  of 
becoming  a  man's  child  or  God's  child ;  you  must  either  be  born  into  the 
family  or  adopted   into  it.     And  all   Christ's  processes  are  processes  of 
nature,  so  the  adoption  method  would  not  do.     There  is  not  a  single  eccen- 
tric thing  in  all  the  things  that  Christ  ever  did  or  taught.     There  was  never 
a  queer  thing  in  any  of  his  words  or  actions.     If  you  are  to  be  really  a  per- 
son's son,  you  must  be  born  so.     I  believe  this  is  thought  to  be  one  of  the 
severest  passages  in  the  Gospels.    There  are  men  of  more  than  average 
intelligence  who  reject  it,  and  many  also  fear  it.     It  is  one  of  the  most  joy-, 
ful  and  hopeful  things  that  has  ever  been  taught.     There  is  not  one  of  you 
here  who  has  not  said  at  one  time  or  another,  "  Oh,  if  I  could  only  live  my 
life  over  again  ".    This  passage  says  that  you  can.     In  your  school  days  you 
worked  over  your  problem  and  found  the  answer  was  not  right.     But  when 
you  found  that  it  was  wrong  you  changed  a  figure  here,  another  one  there, 
and  when  finally  you  could  not  make  it  come  right  you  took  your  sponge 
and  wiped  it  all  out  and  said,  "  I  am  going  to  begin  over  again  ".     Now 
that  is  what  Christ  said  to  Nicodemus :    "  Begin  over  again  as  a  child. 
Don't  do  it  as  an  old  man,  begin  to  grow  up  into  the  childhood  toward 
God,  and  then   when  it  comes  time  to  go  to  heaven  you  will  simply  go 
home ".     I  asked  my  little  girl  one  day  when  she  came  home  at  noon, 
"Why  did  you  come  in  here?"     She  opened  her  great  eyes  and  looked  at 
me;  she  did  not  know  what  I  meant.     I  said,  "Why  didn't  you  gainto  the 
Doctor's,  next  door  ?  "     Finally  she  said,  "  Why,  this  is  my  home  ".     Yes,  it 
is  home,  that  is  the  reason  you  are  going  to  heaven,  you  are  going  to  your 
Father's  home.     It  must  be  a  home.     You  have  to  be  a  child  of  God  if  you 
wish  to  enter  the  Father's  home.     There  is  not  a  man  living  who  does  not 
need  this  new  birth.     There  are  a  great  many  men  living  today  who  need 
to  have  their  lives  turned  back  to  the  very  source  and  to  be  born  again 
into  a  real  childhood,  and  fitted  for  the  home  that  is  in  heaven.     So  I  say  it 
is  one  of  the  gladdest  and  most  joyous  things  in  the  whole  Gospel.    To  think 


114  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  it,  my  friends,  that  a  man  can  be  born  again.  Think  of  it,  that  your  life 
with  all  its  blunders  can  be  wiped  out ;  that  your  sins  can  all  be  cast  into 
the  sea ;  that  you  can  start  all  over  again  and  prattle  as  God's  child,  and 
work  as  God's  child,  and  finally  go  home,  because  heaven  is  your  Father's 
house.  Surely  the  story  of  the  new  birth  is  good  news  to  the  men  and 
women  of  this  day. 

The  next  incident  that  comes  to  my  mind  is  the  Lord's  interview  at  the 
well  of  Jacob  at  Samaria,  which  was  of  a  similar  character.  The  Saviour 
said  to  this  woman,  "  You  keep  coming  here  day  after  day,  and  you  are 
just  as  thirsty  ;  I  want  to  tell  you  something  ".  Then  He  said  the  strangest 
word  she  ever  heard ;  the  most  marvelous  thing  that  ever  fell  upon  the  poor, 
dull  ear  of  that  woman,  a  name  she  never  had  heard ;  that  the  eternal  God 
whom  her  fathers  worshipped  was  her  Father.  She  crouched  at  His  feet. 
Other  men  were  ready  to  stone  her,  they  frowned  at  her,  there  was  but  one 
friendly  face,  and  only  one  who  knew  her,  and  down  into  her  wrecked  heart 
He  let  fall  that  benediction,  "  God  is  your  Father,  and  He  loves  you  ".  "  I 
can  give  unto  you  that  water  that  shall  become  in  you  a  well  of  water  which 
shall  be  pure  water,  which  shall  be  sweet,  refreshing  water,  and  you  shall 
live  a  life  indeed  ".  She  went  out  and  told  it,  and  you  know  how  much  bet- 
ter she  was  than  the  disciples.  The  disciples  went  into  the  town  to  get 
things,  she  went  into  the  town  to  give  something;  and  "it  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive  ".  She  even  left  her  water-pot.  I  wonder  what 
became  of  it.  She  went  everywhere,  telling  it  to  everybody,  and  the  people 
asked  Him  to  stay.  The  people  were  not  courteous;  they  said,  "  We  have 
heard  Him  ourselves,  we  know  this  is  the  Christ ",  and  then  followed  their 
confession.  It  was  a  strange  thing  to  say.  There  was  hardly  a  Jew  who 
believed  He  was  the  Christ ;  there  are  many  people  who  do  not  now  believe 
it ;  "  This  is  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world  ".  How  many  wise  men 
say  today  that  Christ  is  the  Saviour  for  the  people  in  Providence  and  the 
rest  of  Rhode  Island ;  that  Buddha  will  do  for  the  people  of  India ;  that 
Mohammed  will  do  for  the  Turks  and  Arabians ;  that  Confucius  will  do  for 
the  Chinese,  and  Christ  will  take  care  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  But  they  said 
this  Gospel  should  be  for  the  world.  Nine  years  after  that,  when  Philip 
went  there,  he  found  people  waiting  for  him,  all  ready,  and  it  is  recorded 
that  there  "  was  great  joy  in  that  city  ".  Those  men  had  held  on,  they  had 
stood  faithful  to  Christ  for  nine  years.  Is  not  that  worth  telling  ?  Was  not 
that  worth  doing?  No  wonder  that  John  puts  this  story  in.  These  inci- 
dents have  been  with  individuals.  He  had  not  very  much  to  do  with  multi- 
tudes, though  He  talked  with  them  when  they  came  to  Him.  But  Christ  had 
wonderful  power  with  individuals.  There  was  Nicodemus.  Christ  did  not 
seem  to  get  a  strong  hold  upon  him,  but  the  man  came  and  anointed  Him 
when  He  was  dead.  There  was  the  rich  young  man  who  went  away,  but 
went  sorrowful,  because  he  had  to  choose  between  Christ  and  his  real  estate. 
And  there  was  poor  Judas.  When  the  treason  was  all  over  he  brought  the 
money  back  and  threw  it  down  and  went  out  and  hanged  himself.  Christ 
had  some  hold  upon  him,  but  it  was  not  enough  to  save  him.     It  is  that 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  115 

personal  contact,  the  grip  of  spirit  with  spirit,  that  is  so  conspicuous  in 
Christ's  life,  and  that  is  what  John  preeminently  teaches. 

Then,  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda  at  Jerusalem,  we  have  the  healing  of  the 
poor  man  who  had  been  a  cripple  longer  than  Christ  had  been  in  the  world. 
He  had  not  energy  enough  to  roll  into  the  pool,  and  nobody  had  goodness 
enough  to  put  him  in.  When  Christ  asked  him,  "Wilt  thou  be  made 
whole .''  "  he  began  to  whine.  "  I  have  no  man,  when  the  water  is  troubled, 
to  put  me  into  the  pool,  but  while  I  am  coming  another  steppeth  down 
before  me  ".  "Why,  there  are  forty  priests  in  the  temple;  here  are  a  score 
of  men  going  by  now ;  here  is  a  man  just  going  up  out  of  the  water  ". 
"  Yes,  I  know  it ",  he  seemed  to  reply,  "  but  they  go  away  and  forget  us 
who  are  afflicted  here  ".  And  if  this  man  was  worth  healing,  as  I  think  he 
was,  after  that  there  was  always  some  one  there  to  help  any  other  who  was 
helpless.  From  that  day  he  always  went  round  that  way  when  he  returned 
home  or  went  to  work  in  the  morning,  if  he  was  a  workman.  Some  one 
might  stop  him  and  ask,  "  Why  do  you  always  go  by  that  road  to  and  from 
your  work,  you  know  the  other  way  is  much  nearer  ?  "  "  Oh,  I  tell  you,  I 
know  what  it  is,  I  know  how  it  feels  to  be  down  there.  See  that  poor  fellow 
there  ;  I  was  there  a  long  time,  until  the  day  when  the  good  Master  healed 
me,  and  it  shall  never  be  said,  as  long  as  I  live,  that  there  is  no  one  there  to 
put  a  poor  cripple  into  the  pool  when  the  water  is  disturbed  ".  Suppose 
there  was  a  man  here  in  Providence  and  nobody  had  invited  him  to  come  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  for  two  weeks,  what  do  you  suppose  that  man  would  think 
of  the  Christian  people  of  the  town  ?  Suppose  you  are  a  professing  Chris- 
tian and  as  Christ's  disciple  you  come  to  the  Lord's  table,  if  you  had  not 
for  some  three  or  four  days  tried  to  help  your  fellow  men  into  a  knowledge 
of  your  Master,  what  would  He  think  of  your  religion  "i  Say  to  yourself, 
"  I  never,  never  will  have  it  true  that  there  was  any  man  anxious  to  go  into 
the  pool  to  be  healed  who  failed  because  I  was  concerned  only  to  get  into 
heaven  myself.  I  will  not  let  my  afflicted  neighbors  lie  unaided  in  their 
affliction  ".  Every  day  I  will  go  down  upon  these  marble  steps,  and  these 
arms  shall  move  any  man  who  is  there  and  needs  it.  Perhaps  that  is  what 
John  meant  by  telling  this  story,  which  the  other  apostles  omitted.  Good 
Doctor  Sears  used  to  say  that  no  man  ever  tried  to  go  to  heaven  alone  who 
did  not  freeze  by  the  way.  You  come  to  the  God  of  heaven  with  a  poor 
sinner  in  your  arms  and  you  will  be  able  to  read  your  title  clear.  When 
you  come  to  the  great  day  of  the  Lord,  if  you  say  "  I  did  not  do  anything, 
or  say  anything  to  help  any  one,  but  here  I  am  ",  you  may  hear  that  sad 
refrain,  as  it  comes  from  our  Lord's  gracious  lips,  "  Not  he  that  repeateth 
the  name  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  ". 

I  am  detaining  you  longer  than  I  ought ;  you  are  very  patient.  I 
should  like  to  say  something  about  the  bread  of  life,  which  our  Lord  called 
Himself.  All  the  four  Gospels  give  an  account  of  the  feeding  of  the  5,000, 
but  John  alone  mentions  the  teaching  which  was  given  with  it.  Here  again 
we  have  the  old  man  revealed.  The  other  writers  say  "that  there  were 
only  five  loaves  and  two  small  fishes  ".    John  says,  "  there  is  a  boy  here  ". 


ii6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

That  is  the  old  man,  he  remembers  the  boy ;  and  the  critical  point  of  the 
narrative  is  that  boy.  Men  are  always  hungry,  and  Christ  is  ready  to  heal ; 
the  great  trouble  is  to  find  the  boy.  If  religion  does  not  flourish  in  Provi- 
dence, it  is  because  you  do  not  do  as  the  boy  did,  give  up  all  you  have. 
The  boy  has  the  balance  of  power.  When  the  boy  is  willing  to  part  with 
his  barley  cakes,  then  the  multitude  will  be  fed. 

Then  we  have  the  story  of  the  opening  of  the  eyes  of  the  blind  man. 
Here  Jesus  taught  that  He  was  the  light  of  the  world,  and  then  He  opened 
the  eyes  of  the  man.  A  good  teacher  said  that  when  you  want  to  know  what 
Christianity  is  you  should  ask  what  took  place  between  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
man  who  was  born  blind  ;  then  you  have  it  in  the  lowest  terms.  What  hap- 
pened then  ?  Jesus  looked  upon  him  and  said,  "  Go  down  this  hill ;  there  is 
a  pool  of  water  there ;  go  and  bathe  your  eyes  in  it  and  you  will  receive 
your  sight".  The  man's  cure  depended  upon  his  trust  in  Christ.  But  why 
should  he  obey  ?  No  man  advised  it.  There  was  not  one  chance  in  a 
thousand  that  he  would  be  cured.  There  was  not  a  man  in  Jerusalem  who 
would  not  say  he  was  a  fool.  Many  had  washed  their  eyes  in  the  pool  of 
Siloam,  and  it  had  not  helped  them.  But  he  went.  The  first  step  he  took 
made  him  a  Christian.  A  Christian  is  a  man  who  does  what  Christ  tells 
him  to  do,  because  Christ  tells  him  to  do  it. 

Then  there  is  that  next  chapter,  in  which  our  Lord  calls  Himself  the 
good  shepherd.  Do  you  see  how  John  extends  everything,  and  yet  every- 
thing is  rooted  in  the  past  ?  The  best  name  God  has  in  the  Old  Testament 
is  found  in  the  Twenty-third  Psalm.  That  is  a  very  good  beginning,  that  is 
the  kindergarten.  What  is  the  shepherd  when  you  get  up  to  the  university  ? 
The  kindergarten  says,  "  He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in  green  pastures,  He 
leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters".  John  says,  "The  Good  Shepherd 
giveth  His  life  for  the  sheep  ". 

Then  there  came  a  day  when  some  Greeks  wanted  to  see  Jesus,  and  as 
soon  as  the  word  came  to  Him  He  sent  them  no  message,  so  far  as  we 
know.  He  looked  up  into  heaven  and  said,  "  Father,  the  hour  is  come  ". 
They  had  begun  to  see  the  same  truth  which  the  Samaritans  saw,  that 
He  was  the  Saviour  of  the  Jews,  but  He  was  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
"And  I  ",  He  said,  "If  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Me,  Jews  and  Gentiles  ".  It  was  a  new  revelation,  of  which  the 
church  today  is  not  worthy,  for  while  we  are  living  in  luxury  here  in  New 
England  the  missionary  boards  are  halting  for  lack  of  bread. 

Then  there  was  the  raising  of  Lazarus.  Then  the  new  sacrament  of 
washing  of  feet,  which  John  alone  mentions.  The  symbol  we  take  to 
represent  Christianity  is  the  cross  of  Christ.  Another  symbol  that  Jesus 
Christ  gave  to  represent  Christianity  is  a  basin  and  a  towel.  They  belong 
together.  If  you  are  not  wearing  that  symbol,  do  not  wear  a  cross.  He 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ran- 
som for  many.  That  symbol,  if  carried  out  in  His  spirit,  would  move  this 
town,  if  only  every  follower  of  Christ  carried  both  the  symbol  and  the 
spirit  of  the  towel  and  the  basin. 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  GOSPEI.  117 

Then  comes  the  wonderful  fourteenth  chapter  of  John,  that  goes  back 
to  the  very  beginning  of  things  and  shows  how  the  Hfe  of  Christ  becomes 
our  life,  and  how  Christ  literally  lives  in  us.  Then  there  follows  the  prom- 
ise of  the  Holy  Spirit,  Who  should  come  to  abide  with  us  forever.  Then 
follows  that  marvelous  prayer  by  the  great  High  Priest,  who  bears  all  lov- 
ing hearts  up  into  the  embrace  of  the  loving  Father  and  teaches  us  that 
eternal  life  is  to  know  God  and  Him.  No  human  presumption,  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world  to  this  time,  has  ever  dared  to  couple  its  name  with 
the  name  of  the  eternal  God  as  essential  to  eternal  life,  as  Christ  does  here. 
And  yet  He  said,  and  John  records  it,  as  a  definition  of  eternal  life,  "this  is 
life  eternal,  to  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  JESUS  CHRIST  Whom 
Thou  hast  sent".  Thee  and  Me.  What  a  wonderful  assertion.  Try  to 
write  your  name,  or  the  name  of  any  one  else  between  the  name  of  Jehovah 
and  this  assertion  of  life. 

The  crucifixion  is  given  more  in  detail  than  in  the  other  Gospels, 
Then  comes  the  last  interviews  and  the  confession  of  Thomas  when  he 
bears  witness  to  Christ  as  the  Messiah.  And  then  the  wonderful  twenty- 
first  chapter  closes  his  record.  It  is  the  ordination  chapter,  with  Christ's 
way  of  ordination.  "  Lovest  thou  Me?"  "I  do".  "Feed  My  sheep". 
"Lovest  thou  Me?"  "I  do".  "Feed  My  lambs".  They  have  not 
chosen  Him  but  He  has  chosen  them  and  ordained  them  that  they  should 
go  and  bear  fruit  and  that  their  fruit  should  remain. 

I  wish  that  I  had  another  hour  to  dwell  upon  this  book,  but  I  must 
relieve  you.  This  is  the  inspiring  Gospel,  these  words  are  spirit  and  they 
are  life.  My  beloved  friend.  Professor  Thayer,  left  this  as  the  central, 
all-conquering  truth  of  Christianity :  "  Personal  loyalty  to  a  personal 
Master,  the  crucified,  risen,  reigning  Christ ".  We  like  to  read  that  story 
of  centuries  ago,  how  the  venerable  Bede  had  for  his  last  labors  the  transla- 
tion of  this  story  of  St.  John  into  our  words.  We  are  told  that  he  wrote 
while  age  crept  upon  him,  and  as  he  drew  near  the  end  of  his  work  his 
strength  failed  him.  His  disciples  urged  him  on.  They  cried,  "  Master, 
master,  there  is  but  one  chapter  more  ".  The  master  wrote  on  until  his 
strength  was  gone.  His  disciples  said,  "  There  is  but  one  verse  more  " 
He  summoned  his  failing  strength  and  translated  the  one  remaining  verse 
The  master  said,  "  It  is  finished  ".  And  they  answered,  "  It  is  finished  " 
He  lay  where  he  could  fix  his  eyes  upon  the  place  where  he  used  to  pray 
and  there  breathed  out  his  spirit  to  that  Saviour  whom  he  had  glorified 
That  is  the  way  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  came  into  our  English  speech. 


*THE  WORKS  OF  JESUS.    L— RESURRECTION. 

(St..  John  5  :  17-30.) 

BY    REV.    G-EORGE     P".    ECICjMAN,    Ph.    T).,    T).    ID., 

Pastor  of  St.  Paul's  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  New  York. 

The  passage  which  has  been  assigned  to  me  is  so  wondrously  fruitful 
of  great  thought  that  one  could  spend  months  in  the  discussion  of  it  without 
even  approximately  exhausting  the  themes  which  it  contains.  The  student 
who  attempts  adequately  to  treat  this  chapter  finds  himself  embarrassed 
much  in  the  same  way  as  the  old  hero  in  the  Norse  mythology,  who,  being 
asked  to  drain  a  great  beaker,  found  at  length  that  he  was  vainly  seeking  to 
empty  the  fathomless  ocean.  The  temptation  to  turn  aside  to  the  many 
important  topics  suggested  by  this  passage  must  be  resisted.  Let  us  con- 
fine ourselves  to  the  specific  subject  in  hand. 

The  power  to  raise  the  dead  implies,  of  course,  the  power  to  impart 
life.  And  life  can  only  be  imparted  by  Him  who  is  life.  This  is  the  cen- 
tral fact  with  regard  to  Jesus,  upon  which  everything  in  this  discussion  must 
naturally  hinge.  Jesus  came  in  the  form  of  a  man,  but  He  differed  from  all 
other  men  in  the  fact  that  He  Himself  was  life.  Other  men  have  received 
life,  but  He  is  essentially  life.  His  most  intimate  friend  said  that  "  in  Him 
was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men  ".  He  said  of  Himself,  "  I  am 
the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life  ".  When  He  met  Death,  as  He  did  fre- 
quently, He  did  not  shrink  back  from  him  as  we  do,  but  He  said,  "  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life  ",  and  Death  withdrew  to  his  dark  domain. 
He  called  God  His  own  Father,  and  said,  "As  the  Father  hath  life  in  Him- 
self, so  hath  He  given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  Himself  ".  This  was  a  very 
daring  claim,  and  was  bound  to  provoke  hostility  and  criticism.  But  the 
lucidity  of  His  mind  and  the  perfection  of  His  character  require  us  to 
believe  that  He  was  very  sane  and  very  sincere  when  He  said,  "  I  am  life  ". 
Moreover,  He  substantiated  this  claim  in  a  most  marvelous  fashion  by  cur- 
ing the  sick  and  raising  the  dead.  What  a  hollow  sham  His  profession  to 
be  "life"  would  have  been,  if  He  meant  merely,  "I  am  able  to  give  spir- 
itual life  ",  but  showed  no  evidence  of  it  in  the  fact  that  He  could  raise  men 
from  physical  death ;  or  if,  having  fallen  asleep  in  Joseph's  tomb.  He  had 
not  awakened  to  receive  the  salutations  of  the  angels.  Life  is  a  unity.  We 
speak  of  life  as  physical  as  well  as  spiritual,  and  He  who  calls  himself  "  life  " 
must  be  the  embodiment  of  all  the  forms  that  we  call  life.  He  must  not 
only  be  immanent  in  nature,  but  must  transcend  nature.  He  must  not  only 
pervade  the  mind,  but  He  must  be  far  above  the  hum.an  mind.  He  must  be  the 
fountain  of  Spiritual  life,  and  He  must  be  the  essence  of  life  in  all  its  various 


*  Delivered  at  the  Third  Conference,  held  at  the  Beneficent  Congregational  Church,  December  9,  1903. 

118 


THE  WORKS  OF  JESUS.— RESURRECTION.  119. 

expressions.  Now  Jesus  demonstrated  this  power  in  all  the  ranges  of  what 
we  call  life.  The  shrunken  limb  became  normal  and  the  diseased  soul 
became  healthy.  We  have  never  seen  Him  cure  the  sick  or  raise  the  dead, 
but  we  have  discovered  Him  raising  men  from  the  deadness  of  sin  to  the  life 
of  conscious  fellowship  with  God,  And  because  we  have  witnessed  this,  we 
believe  that  He  could  go  through  all  the  hospitals  of  the  world  and  turn 
out  all  the  sick  and  impotent  folk  in  abounding  health,  and  that  He  could 
go  through  all  the  asylums  of  the  world  and  make  lunacy  a  forgotten  malady, 
for  He  is  "  life  ". 

I.  We  have  in  this  wonderful  passage,  first  of  all,  an  illustration  of 
Christ's  power  to  impart  life  quite  apart  from  any  human  agency,  except  the 
response  of  the  human  will.  The  chapter  begins  with  the  story  of  the  impo- 
tent man  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda.  Jesus  beholds  and  addresses  the  unfor 
tunate  man,  and  arouses  in  his  soul  the  latent  desire  to  be  made  whole, 
and  leads  him  out  of  helplessness  into  abundant  life. 

Now  this  passage  is  no  sooner  read  than  some  hard-brained  man  who 
thinks  more  of  mathematics  than  dogmatics,  who  would  rather  be  logical 
than  theological,  declares  that  it  is  a  story  more  worthy  of  the  Middle  Ages 
than  of  our  times,  and  wants  to  know  how  the  Bible  can  expect  to  hold  the 
allegiance  of  intelligent  people  while  it  adheres  to  such  preposterous  tales, 
which  remind  one  of  the  Church  of  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre',  or  the  statues  of 
the  bleeding  saints,  or  the  grotto  of  Lourdes.  He  does  not  know  that 
textual  criticism  removes  certain  portions  of  the  narrative  which  are  offen- 
sive to  reason.  Our  Revised  Version  recognizes  the  fact  that  a  popular 
misconception  of  the  day  about  angelic  interference  in  the  waters  of  a  ther- 
mal spring  has  been  transferred  from  the  margin  of  an  old  manuscript  into 
the  body  of  the  text,  and  has  wisely  omitted  it.  Yet  this  may  be  done 
without  impairing  the  value  of  the  story.  On  the  other  hand,  it  receives 
added  strength.  Those  who  throw  over  an  entire  narrative  because  some 
of  its  details  do  not  appeal  to  their  reason  are  as  unwise  as  an  old  Dutch 
farmer,  whose  buildings  were  overrun  with  rats,  and  who  resorted  to  the 
expedient  of  burning  down  the  structures  in  order  that  he  might  deliver 
himself  from  the  pests.  There  are  persons  today  calling  themselves  logical 
who,  because  occasionally  they  discover  a  minor  defect  in  the  Scriptures, 
repudiate  the  whole  system  of  Christianity.  But  after  criticism  has  done  its 
most,  there  remains  the  fact  that  Jesus  did  heal  the  impotent  man.  We  can- 
not strike  out  the  supernatural  from  the  New  Testament.  It  is  here  and 
everywhere.  And  while  the  skeptical  may  question  the  miraculous  element 
in  this  healing,  on  the  supposition  that  the  man  was  possessed  of  such  a  dis- 
ease as  only  needed  for  its  removal  an  authoritative  voice  to  make  the  vic- 
tim's will  assert  itself,  no  such  explanation  will  account  for  many  other 
recorded  miracles.  And  we  have  no  occasion  to  make  apology  for  Jesus. 
He  is  life,  and  life  essentially.  And  what  we  call  the  miraculous  is  simply 
the  extraordinary  emergence  of  life,  the  unusual  working  of  an  activity  that 
is  constantly  in  procedure.  Huxley  admitted  that  there  was  no  inherent 
reason  for  denying  the  credibility  of  a  miracle  ;  and  we  who  have  seen  Jesus 


I20  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

working  spiritual  miracles  in  this  twentieth  century  have  no  reason  to  dis- 
credit the  story  of  His  physical  miracles  in  the  first  century.  But  Jesus 
was  always  chary  of  performing  miracles.  He  had  no  disposition  to  per- 
form miracles  merely  that  men  might  be  amazed.  The  wonder  is  that  He 
performed  so  few ;  that  He  should  have  been  so  self- controlled  as  not  to  be 
always  performing  miracles.  His  miracles  were  for  signs ;  they  were  to  sig- 
nify something.  They  are  as  different  from  the  miracles  of  the  Middle 
Ages  as  can  be  conceived.  There  is  no  moral  significance  in  a  story  of 
healing  by  the  bones  of  saints.  But  in  the  miracles  which  Jesus  works  there 
is  an  essential  moral  significance,  a  spiritual  lesson,  a  type  of  eternal  life 
which  the  student  cannot  possibly  overlook.  John  seems  to  have  fallen  into 
the  habit  of  his  Master's  mind,  and  thought  always  of  His  miracles  in  rela- 
tion to  divine  truth.  Did  Jesus  heal  a  withered  band  ?  Then  it  was  an 
indication  that  He  could  cure  a  diseased  soul.  Did  He  by  wondrous  multi- 
plication of  fishes  and  loaves  feed  five  thousand  men  and  women  ?  Then  it 
was  a  mark  of  the  fact  that  He  was  Himself  the  Bread  of  Life.  Was  He 
able  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind  man  ?  Then  it  was  a  sublime  illustration 
of  the  fact  that  Jesus  is  the  Light  of  the  World.  Could  He  cure  an  impo- 
tent man  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda  ?  Then  it  was  a  type  of  the  fact  that  He 
could  restore  those  who  were  spiritually  impotent.  Did  He  raise  Lazarus 
from  the  dead .-'  Then  it  was  to  prove  that  He  was  the  Resurrection  and 
the  Life.  So  this  story  has  a  very  close  relation  to  the  whole  power  of  Jesus 
as  "  Resurrection  "  and  as  "  Life  ". 

IL  In  the  next  place,  we  have  here  the  self-vindication  of  Jesus  on  the 
basis  of  His  filial  relation  to  God  the  Father,  and  His  essential  oneness 
with  Him,  He  is  charged  with  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath  law ;  it  is  an 
unproved  accusation.  Indeed,  by  the  strictest  interpretation  of  the  Mosaic 
code  He  could  not  have  been  convicted.  It  would  have  been  an  easy  thing 
to  dispose  of  this  accusation  by  recourse  to  the  code  and  to  history.  On 
other  occasions,  when  similar  accusations  were  lodged  against  Him,  He 
took  this  course,  but  in  the  present  instance  He  does  not  defend  Himself  in 
this  fashion.  He  ignores  all  such  considerations,  and  with  a  simple  thrust 
strikes  at  the  core  of  the  whole  matter  when  He  says,  "  My  Father  worketh 
hitherto,  and  I  work  ".  The  activity  which  characterizes  God  is  not  limited 
by  any  narrow  Sabbath  laws  which  have  been  passed  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind.  From  the  hour  when  His  creative  work  was  concluded,  and  He 
pronounced  His  work  good,  until  this  hour  He  has  not  ceased  to  pour  Him- 
self out  in  the  sustaining  of  His  universe,  in  the  impartation  of  life  to  His 
creatures,  in  the  work  of  redemption  for  those  who  are  lost.  "  My  Father 
and  I  are  one.  He  worketh  until  now,  and  I  work.  His  will  is  mine ;  His 
work  is  My  work.  At  any  moment  I  am  ready  at  His  command  to  do  what- 
soever He  desireth  ".  Instantly  the  charge  of  an  infraction  of  the  Sabbath 
law  is  dropped.  His  accusers  pass  over  the  whole  matter,  and  charge  Him 
with  identifying  Himself  with  God,  and,  therefore,  with  being  guilty  of  blas- 
phemy. Their  instinct  was  correct,  their  motive  contemptible.  It  is  in  the 
assumption  that  He  is  God,  and  that  life  proceeds  from  Him  inevitably,  that 


THE  WORKS  OF  JESUS.— RESURRECTION.  121 

the  heart  of  the  trouble  rests.  But  we  need  not  discuss  that  subject  now. 
If  that  is  not  true  there  is  no  truth  in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  that  one 
need  hold  for  a  single  instant.  And  if  that  is  not  truth,  it  is  the  greatest  of 
all  folly  that  we  should  corrie  together  to  study  this  Gospel. 

Passing  now  from  this  general  statement  of  the  basis  on  which  He  has 
assumed  authority  to  impart  life  to  men,  Jesus  bursts  forth,  first,  into  a 
general  statement  of  His  divine  right  to  raise  the  dead  and  judge  them, 
and  then  to  a  more  particular  statement,  in  a  concrete  and  explicit  form,  of 
His  rights  in  the  moral  and  external  domains  now  and  forever  with  re- 
lation to  the  destiny  of  mankind.  He  virtually  says  to  these  accusers, 
"  You  profess  to  be  scandalized  because  I  am  supposed  to  have  violated 
the  Sabbath  laws,  and  because  I  have  claimed  to  be  divine  in  My  own  per- 
son ;  what  will  )'ou  say  when  I  tell  you  that  all  power  is  mine  ?  that  I  am 
the  judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  and  that  by  My  own  voice  I  shall  call 
men  from  the  tomb,  and  in  the  end  shall  be  the  final  and  absolute  arbiter 
of  the  destinies  of  human  beings  t  For,  as  the  Father  raiseth  up  the  dead 
and  quickeneth  them,  even  so  the  Son  quickeneth  whom  He  will.  For  the 
Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son  ; 
that  all  men  should  honor  the  Son,  even  as  they  honor  the  Father.  He  that 
honoreth  not  the  Son  honoreth  not  the  Father  which  hath  sent  Him. 
Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  heareth  My  word  and  believeth  on 
Him  that  sent  Me,  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condemna- 
tion, but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  yo\x  the 
hour  is  coming,  and  now  is,  v/hen  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son 
of  God ;  and  they  that  hear  shall  live  ". 

in.  Again,  the  healing  of  the  impotent  man  forms  a  concrete  illustra- 
tion in  symbolism  of  the  spiritual  resurrection.  "  Wilt  thou  be  made 
whole  .''  "  is  the  challenge  of  Jesus.  The  man  hears  the  question,  responds 
to  it,  and  by  the  expenditure  of  his  own  will,  in  the  exercise  of  what  we 
call  faith,  takes  up  his  bed  and  walks  ;  and  goes  out  to  sin  no  more  that  he 
may  have  no  worse  thing  come  upon  him  than  he  has  been  suffering  these 
thirty-eight  years.  "  Wilt  thou  be  made  whole  ? "  is  the  demand  of  Jesus 
now  and  always.  Those  who  hear  His  voice  and  respond  to  His  call  are 
those  who  live  ;  and  those  who  will  not  heed  His  voice  are  those  who  can- 
not live  because  they  refuse  to  accept  His  life  as  a  free  gift.  "  Wilt  thou 
be  made  whole  ?  "  Do  you  want  to  be  made  sound  ?  Are  you  eager  to  have 
life  and  health  t  That  is  a  very  crucial  question.  It  is  the  question  which 
Jesus  is  always  asking.  And  it  is  not  everyone  who  is  sick,  and  murmurs 
about  it,  that  really  wants  to  be  well.  There  are  many  people  who  do  not 
want  to  get  health  ;  and  many  people  like  to  tell  you  of  their  diseases,  and 
the  sufferings  they  have  experienced  at  the  hands  of  many  physicians,  and 
the  number  of  hospitals  they  have  been  in  or  visited  for  treatment,  in  order 
that  they  may  awake  in  you  the  impulse  of  sympathy.  And  the  same  thing 
is  true  in  the  moral  realm.  Not  every  one  who  professes  himself  sick  and 
talks  about  his  being  so  needy  desires  to  be  well  spiritually.  Lord  Byron 
developed   a   sort  of   foolish   self-pity  by   such  a  method.     He  desired  to 


122  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

describe  himself  as  a  sort  of  unfortunate  victim  of  fleshly  lusts,  and  he  gloried 
in  his  shame.  A  man  recently  said  that  he  would  rather  give  ten  thousand 
dollars  to  retain  his  delicious  thirst  for  alcoholic  beverages  than  to  have 
that  thirst  removed.  He  had  sunken  into  that  insensibility  which  prevents 
a  man  from  hearing  the  voice  and  responding  to  the  call  which  summons 
to  life.  Do  you  want  to  be  healed  ?  is  the  challenge  of  Jesus.  Are  you 
willing  to  launch  your  personal  will  into  the  divine  will,  and  to  arise  from 
the  dead  ?  They  who  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  and  respond,  live  ; 
and  they  who  do  not  heed  and  respond  are  dead. 

IV.  It  follows  naturally  that  judgment  ensues.  It  is  in  the  very  fact 
of  men's  attitude  toward  this  call  of  Jesus.  What  He  says  in  this  connec- 
tion about  judgment  being  committed  to  Him  is  simply  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  His  offer  of  life  to  men,  and  of  the  position  they  take  with 
reference  to  it.  Perhaps  you  have  read  Fenelon's  dialogue  between  Ulysses 
and  Grillus,  the  man  whom  Circe  had  turned  into  a  hog.  Ulysses  wished 
to  bring  him  back  to  manhood.  But  Grillus  would  not  consent.  He  said, 
"  No,  the  life  of  a  hog  is  so  much  pleasanter  ".  "  But",  said  Ulysses,  "  Do 
you  make  no  account  of  eloquence,  poetry  and  music  ?  "  "  No,  I  would  rather 
grunt  than  be  eloquent  like  you  ".  "  But ",  asked  Ulysses  further,  "  How 
can  you  endure  this  nastiness  and  stench?"  Grillus  replied,  "It  all  de- 
pends on  the  taste ;  the  odor  is  sweeter  to  me  than  that  of  amber,  and  the 
filth  than  the  nectar  of  the  gods  ".  When  men  sink  into  the  insensibility 
of  degrading  sin  they  put  themselves  in  the  place  of  judgment ;  and  the 
judgment  of  the  hereafter  will  base  itself  upon  the  position  we  have  occu- 
pied in  this  probationary  sphere.  John  LeFarge  says,  "  When  a  man 
passes  a  criticism  upon  a  picture,  it  is  the  picture  that  judges  the  man,  and 
not  the  man  who  judges  the  picture  ".  The  men  who  receive  the  offer  of 
Christ,  and  pass  upon  it,  are  judged  by  the  attitude  in  which  they  present 
themselves  to  His  appeal.  They  that  hear  the  Son  of  God  shall  live. 
Others  cannot  see  life.  Even  as  the  impotent  man  at  the  Pool  of  Bethesda 
would  have  been  helpless  to  the  day  of  his  death,  had  he  not  responded  to 
the  call  of  Christ  to  take  up  his  bed  and  walk  forth  into  the  world. 

V.  And  now  we  see  that,  advancing  from  this  general  statement  with 
regard  to  resurrection  from  spiritual  deadness,  Jesus  addresses  Himself  to 
the  great  question  of  the  physical  resurrection.  He  does  not  say  that  He 
is  now  calling  the  dead  from  the  tomb,  but  "the  hour  is  coming,  in  which 
all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  His  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  ;  they 
that  have  done  good,  unto  the  resurrection  of  life ;  and  they  that  have 
done  evil  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation  ".  This  is  the  supreme,  the 
only  satisfactory  and  complete  argument  in  favor  of  a  future  life.  Natura 
immortality  is  an  unprovable  hypothesis ;  it  may  belong  to  us  as  our  birth- 
right, but  the  Bible  does  not  insist  that  this  is  true.  And  the  argument 
from  analogy  falls  to  pieces  in  the  presence  of  the  severest  scientific  invest- 
igation of  our  day.  No  man  who  stands  by  the  bedside  of  a  dying  friend 
and  observes  the  process  of  dissolution  can  see  anything  in  the  phenomena 
of  man's  death  that  differentiates  it  from  the  death  of  an  animal.     With- 


THE   WORKS  OF  JESUS.— RESURRECTION.  123 

out  the  resurrection  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ, 
there  is  no  absolute  foundation  upon  which  one  can  rest  a  hope  of  the  future 
hfe.  Plato  may  "  reason  well";  so  well  that  some  of  his  disciples  are  per- 
suaded to  commit  suicide  in  order  to  reach  a  life  of  bliss ;  but  there  is  no 
argument  from  the  day  of  Plato  to  our  own  that  can  support  the  soul  that 
questions  the  fact  of  a  future  life.  The  only  sure  foundation  of  such  a  hope 
is  the  personal  guarantee  of  Him  who  is  "  Life  ",  who  shall  some  day  send 
His  voice  thrilling  through  the  world  and  call  the  just  and  unjust  out  of  the 
tomb  to  receive  judgment.  But  this  promise  cuts  in  opposite  directions. 
It  says  that  the  unjust,  as  well  as  the  just,  shall  come  at  Christ's  command. 
There  is  no  escaping  His  summons.  "Whither  shall  I  go  from  Thy  spirit? 
or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  Thy  presence  ?  If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven, 
Thou  art  there ;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold  Thou  art  there.  If  I  take 
the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea ;  even 
there  shall  Thy  hand  lead  me,  and  Thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  If  I  say, 
'  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me,  even  the  night  shall  be  light  about 
me.  Yea  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  Thee,  but  the  night  shineth  as  the 
day '  ".  There  is  no  escape  from  Him  except  escape  in  Him.  There  is  no 
way  to  avoid  the  wTath  of  the  Just  One,  except  to  hide  under  the  shadow  of 
His  wings.  Martin  Luther  said,  "  If  I  saw  Jesus  Christ  standing  before 
me  with  a  drawn  sword,  I  would  still  fling  myself  into  His  arms  ".  "  Ye  will 
not  come  unto  Me  that  you  might  have  life  ",  is  the  sad  plaint  of  the  Master 
of  Life  and  Conqueror  of  Death.  Jesus  is  the  life,  the  resurrection,  the 
only  hope  of  eternal  life,  the  judge  of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  the  appor- 
tioner  of  the  rewards  of  the  men  who  have  been  hearers  of  His  voice  and 
have  known  His  love,  the  distributer  of  recompense  to  those  who  in  deep, 
moral  insensibility  have  refused  to  hear  His  voice  and  have  chosen  death 
instead  of  life.     This  is  the  solemn  lesson  of  the  hour. 


*THE  WORKS  OF  JESUS.    II —JUDGMENT. 
(St.  John  5  :  17-30.) 

BY    REV.    CHARLES    Mi.    M:ELr>EISr,    JPH.    T>.,    D.    D., 

Pastor  of  the  Mathewson  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Providence. 

I  have  been  asked  for  an  exegesis  of  these  few  verses,  John  5  : 1 7-30, 
which,  in  the  mind  of  the  committee,  teach  the  important  doctrine  of  a  gen- 
eral judgment  with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  judge.  Our  task  would  be 
simplified  very  greatly  if  we  could  assume  either  of  two  extreme  positions, 
each  of  which  has  its  advocates.  Mr.  Campbell  Morgan  declares,  "  There 
is  no  warrant  for  preaching  the  final  judgment  at  all.  The  messengers  of 
Christ  were  never  commissioned  to  do  so.  They  were  sent  to  preach  the 
gospel,  and  the  only  reference  to  the  fact  of  judgment  which  has  any  place 
in  preaching  is  such  as  is  necessary  for  urging  the  claims  of  Christ  upon 
men  ".  But  one  might  as  well  say  that  the  apostles  were  not  commissioned 
to  preach  the  new  birth,  the  punishment  of  sin,  the  rewards  of  righteous- 
ness, or  any  other  of  the  great  doctrines.  It  would  be  interesting  to  hear 
this  man  define  the  "  gospel "  of  which  he  speaks. 

Whether  the  apostles  understood  as  clearly  as  Mr.  Morgan  the  meaning 
of  their  mission  may  perhaps  be  questioned,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  fact  of 
a  general  judgment  had  a  conspicuous  place  in  their  teaching. 

Moreover,  if  we  are  to  preach  Christ,  it  is  our  duty  to  preach  Him  in  all 
His  offices,  not  only  as  priest  but  as  prophet  and  king ;  not  only  as  the 
atoning  Saviour,  but  as  the  authoritative  teacher  and  reigning  sovereign. 
His  functions,  according  to  the  Gospel,  are  not  only  to  redeem  but  to 
instruct  and  govern.  As  ruler  He  is  also  judge,  and  the  gospel-preaching  is 
defective  which  does  not  thus  present  Him. 

We  might  do,  also,  as  one  learned  essayist  in  these  meetings  has 
already  done,  viz. :  deny  that  the  words  in  vs.  28,  29  were  ever  uttered  by 
the  Master,  but  are  an  interpolation  by  a  later  hand.  In  that  case  they 
would  not  require  an  exegesis.  The  assurance  with  which  some  men  erect 
a  personal  and  purely  subjective  standard  of  what  ought  to  be  said,  and 
reject  everything  which  does  not  conform  to  it,  is  refreshing.  It  is  an  easy 
way  to  dispose  of  an  unpleasant  truth  to  say  Jesus  never  uttered  it  or,  if  He 
did,  He  did  not  know  what  He  was  talking  about.  Whatever  doubts  these 
men  may  have  concerning  the  inerrancy  of  the  Scriptures,  they  seem  well 
assured  of  their  own. 

Now  I  am  disposed  to  accept  this  passage  as  genuine,  and  for  at  least 
two  reasons. 


*  Delivered  at  the  Fifth  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  February  lo,  1904. 

124 


THE  WORKS  OF  JESUS.— JUDGMENT.  125 

First,  its  statements  are  in  perfect  accord  with  the  teaching  of  the 
Synoptic  Gospels  and  with  the  writings  of  all  the  apostles,  as  far  as  they 
have  expressed  themselves  on  the  subject. 

In  Matt.  25:31-33,  Jesus  says,  "When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in 
His  glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  Him,  then  shall  He  sit  upon  the 
throne  of  His  glory,  and  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations :  and  He 
shall  separate  them  one  from  the  other  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep 
from  the  goats".  In  his  memorable  sermon  on  Mars  Hill,  Paul  declared, 
"  He  hath  appointed  a  day  in  the  which  He  will  judge  the  world  in  right- 
eousness by  that  man  whom  He  hath  ordained,  whereof  He  hath  given 
assurance  unto  all  men  in  that  He  hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead  "  (Acts 
17:31).  In  His  epistles  He  more  than  once  in  substance  affirms  that  "We 
must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ".  The  revelator  in 
Apocalyptic  vision — "  Saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  from 
whose  face  the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away ;  and  there  was  found  no 
place  for  them.  And  *  *  *  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before 
God  ;  and  the  books  were  opened  ;  and  another  book  was  opened,  which  is 
the  book  of  life  :  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were 
written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the 
dead  which  were  in  it;  and  death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which 
were  in  them  :  and  they  were  judged  every  man  according  to  their  works  ". 
You  will  say,  perhaps,  that  this  is  imaginative  and  poetical.  But,  taken 
in  connection  with  the  general  trend  of  the  New  Testament,  who  that  gives 
any  doctrinal  value  to  this  book  can  doubt  that  the  writer  is  describing  the 
stupendous  event  toward  w^hich  time  is  hurrying  us  all  ? 

The  doctrine  of  a  general  judgment  cannot  be  wrested  from  the  New 
Testament  teaching  without  violence.  The  passage  before  us  is  in  harmony 
with  this  teaching,  and  is  therefore  presumptively  genuine. 

Secondly,  this  passage  is  in  harmony  with  the  discourse  of  which  it 
forms  a  part.  It  marks,  it  is  true,  a  great  advance  in  thought,  but  it  is  a 
natural  development  and  not  an  obtrusion,  an  irruption,  into  the  discussion 
in  hand.  This,  I  think,  will  be  clear  if  we  glance  comprehensively,  though 
briefly,  at  the  entire  incident. 

Our  Lord  had  cured  the  impotent  man  at  the  pool  known  as  Bethesda. 
It  was  on  the  Sabbath.  Contrary  to  Jewish  custom,  at  the  Master's  bid- 
ding the  man  took  up  his  bed  and  was  going  his  way  when  he  was  accosted 
by  the  Jews,  "  It  is  the  Sabbath  day ;  it  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  carry  thy 
bed ".  He  quoted  the  authority  of  Jesus,  saying,  "  He  that  made  me 
whole,  the  same  said  unto  me,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk  ".  Thus  the  con- 
troversy was  shifted,  and  the  Jews  in  the  fierceness  of  their  rage  sought  to 
slay  Jesus.  In  justification  of  His  act,  and  to  substantiate  His  claims  else- 
where made  that  the  "  Son  of  Man  was  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  ",  He  said, 
"  My  Father  worketh  hitherto  and  I  work ",  This  still  further  inflamed 
their  anger,  and  "  They  sought  the  more  to  kill  Him  because  He  had 
not  only  broken  the  Sabbath  but  said  also  that  God  was  His  Father,  mak- 
ing Himself  equal  with  God  ",    To  the  charge  of  lawlessness  was  added  that 


126  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  blasphemy.  Notice  the  progress,  also,  in  the  defence.  Jesus  does  not 
deny  that  He  claims  equality  with  the  Father ;  on  the  contrary,  He  admits 
it  and  proceeds  to  justify  Himself  in  so  doing.  He  emphasizes  the  perfect 
accord  between  Himself  and  His  Father,  and  then  makes  the  still  graver 
assertion,  doubtless  with  remembrance  of  the  recent  healing  in  mind,  "As 
the  Father  raiseth  up  the  dead  and  quickeneth  them,  even  so  the  Son 
quickeneth  whom  He  will  ". 

Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  to  pass  from  this  suggestion  of 
quickening  the  dead — meaning  probably  the  spiritually  dead — awakening 
them  into  new  life  and  power,  as  He  Himself  had  restored  the  paraljrtic,  to 
the  associated  thought  of  the  judgment.  The  fact  that  the  Father  had  given 
this  great  power  into  His  hands  was  put  forth  as  an  additional  refutation  of 
the  charges  made  against  Him.  He  was  to  act  as  God,  "That  all  men 
might  honor  the  Son  as  they  honor  the  Father.  He  that  honoreth  not  the 
Son  honoreth  not  the  Father  which  hath  sent  Him  ". 

He  moves  forward  in  the  argument  with  a  regal  majesty.  He,  the  life- 
giver  and  judge  of  men,  declares  that  for  those  who  hear  His  voice  and 
respond,  the  great  crises  are  passed  already.  They  already  have  within 
them  the  beginning  of  eternal  life  and  witness  of  their  justification.  "  Ver- 
ily, verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  heareth  My  word,  and  believeth  on  Him 
that  sent  Me,  hath  everlasting  life,  and  cometh  not  into  judgment ;  but  is 
passed  from  death  unto  life.  *  *  *  The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is, 
when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God :  and  they  that  hear 
shall  live.  For  as  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so  hath  He  given  to  the 
Son  to  have  life  in  Himself.  And  hath  given  Him  authority  to  execute 
judgment  also,  because  He  is  the  Son  of  Man  ".  Our  Lord  regards  His 
countrymen,  and,  indeed,  all  unregenerate  men,  as  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins.  Though  physically  alive,  they  are  spiritually  dead.  They  are  as 
helpless  as  the  impotent  man  in  the  porches  of  Bethesda.  He,  as  the  life- 
giver,  stands  and  calls.  He  says  to  them  as  He  said  to  the  other,  "  Wilt 
thou  be  made  whole  ?  "  Happy,  thrice  happy,  those  who  hear  ;  for  those 
who  hear  shall  live. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  here  the  word  rendered  "  wilt  ".  It  is  theleis,  a 
word  conveying  the  idea  of  volition,  of  purpose.  It  is  not  boiilei,  simple 
desire.  It  is  as  though  He  sought  in  this  man  a  purpose  born  of  faith  to 
respond  to  His  life-giving  power.  He  found  what  He  sought,  the  word  was 
spoken,  and  that  weak  and  pain-racked  body  thrilled  and  glowed  with  the 
new  life. 

He  stands  and  calls,  "  If  any  man  thirsts,  come  unto  Me,  drink  and 
live  ".  If  His  words  find  response,  if  any  hear,  they  shall  live.  If  they  fail 
to  hear,  they  continue  in  the  embrace  of  death. 

Thus  Jesus  judges  the  world  today.  By  their  attitude  toward  Him  men 
are  justified  and  live,  or  are  condemned  and  die.  "  For  this  is  the  condem- 
nation that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved  darkness  rather  than 
light  because  their  deeds  were  evil.  Every  one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the 
light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light  lest  his  deeds  should  be  reproved.     But  he 


THE   WORKS  OF  JESUS.— JUDGMENT.  127 

that  doeth  truth  cometh  to  the  light  that  his  deeds  may  be  made  manifest 
that  the)^  are  wrought  in  God  ".  Life  is  a  continuous  judgment  day.  By 
their  acceptance  or  by  their  rejection  of  the  light  men  are  determining  their 
destiny. 

This  is  the  stupendous  claim  put  forth  by  the  Saviour.  By  their  relation 
to  Him  as  life-giver  and  judge,  the  fate  of  men  is  settled.  It  is  not  strange 
that  He  detected  incredulity  and  wonder  in  the  faces  of  His  hearers  at  such 
a  tremendous  assertion  ;  but  He  does  not  hesitate ;  He  does  not  soften  or 
mitigate  in  the  slightest  the  significance  of  His  words.  On  the  contrary  He 
advances  yet  farther ;  there  is  a  constant  crescendo  in  His  claims.  "Are  you 
startled  at  what  1  have  said  ?  Does  it  shock  you  that  I  claim  to  judge  those 
now  on  earth  ?  "  Marvel  not  at  this,  for  the  hour  is  coming  in  which  all  that 
are  in  tneir  graves  shall  hear  My  voice  and  shall  come  forth ;  they  that 
have  done  good  unto  the  resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that  have  done  evil, 
unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation.  The  voice  which  now  speaks  to  you, 
and  which  many  of  you  refuse  to  hear,  shall  sound  through  the  regions 
where  dwell  the  departed,  and  hearing,  they  shall  obey  its  imperative  com- 
mand and  come  forth  to  receive  at  My  hand  their  eternal  award  ".  This 
marks  the  culmination  of  the  Saviour's  work  as  life-giver  and  judge.  From 
the  act  of  supreme  authority — judgment,  He  passes  to  the  supreme  act  of 
power — the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  Then  will  the  universe  receive  final 
demonstration  of  His  sublime  statement,  "lam  the  resurrection  and  the 
life;  he  that  believeth  in  Me  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live;  and 
whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  Me  shall  never  die  ". 

Now  I  submit  that  there  is  nothing  violent  or  irrelevant  in  this  reference 
by  our  Lord  to  the  general  judgment  in  this  discourse.  It  comes  in  the 
natural  development  of  His  discussion  with  His  enemies.  His  claims  being 
challenged,  He  defended  them.  His  authority  to  supersede  their  petty 
traditions  rests  upon  His  oneness  with  the  Father.  His  Father  workelh 
hitherto,  why  should  not  He  work  ?  He  was  one  with  the  Father.  He  was 
entrusted  with  divine  authority  and  power  until  the  honor  of  the  Father 
was  indissolubly  inwrought  with  His. 

As  Godet  says  :  "  This  work  of  moral  and  physical  restoration,  carried 
on  hitherto  by  God,  passes  henceforth  into  the  hands  of  Jesus  but  gradually 
and  according  to  the  measure  of  His  growing  capacity.  Till  His  baptism 
He  had  wrought  only  human  works.  From  that  time  He  begins  to  work 
isolated  miracles  of  bodily  and  spiritual  resurrection,  specimens  of  His 
great  future  work.  From  the  time  of  His  elevation  to  glory,  He  realizes  by 
Pentecost  the  moral  resurrection  of  humanity;  and  finally  by  His  return  on 
the  day  of  His  advent,  and  by  His  victory  over  the  last  enemy,  death,  which 
shall  be  its  consequence.  He  will  work  in  the  physical  domain,  the  universal 
resurrection.  Then  only  will  the  work  of  the  Father  have  passed  wholly 
into  His  hands  ". 

Jesus,  as  life-giver  and  judge  must  be  no  less  than  God,  manifest  in  the 
flesh.  As  one  has  said  :  "  The  more  we  ponder  the  stupendous  claim  which 
Christ  makes,  the  more  must  we  feel  that  it  is  superhuman  authority  which 


128  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

speaks  to  us  here,  or  superhuman  arrogance ".  He,  Himself,  seemed  to 
reaUze  the  force  of  this  dilemma,  for  He  said:  "If  I  bear  witness  of 
Myself,  My  witness  is  not  true  ".  Not  that  He  falsified  in  His  claims,  but 
that  He  did  not  meet  the  demands  of  Jewish  law  by  which  a  thing  must 
be  established  by  two  or  more  witnesses.  "  I  am  willing  ",  He  says,  "  to 
submit  to  this  requirement.     I  have  My  witnesses  and  will  produce  them. 

"Ye  sent  unto  John,  to  him  in  whose  light  ye  were  willing  to  rejoice. 
He  bore  witness  to  Me,  it  is  true,  but  I  have  a  greater  witness  than  he. 

"  First  of  all,  there  are  My  works.  They  clearly  demonstrate  My  divine 
office  and  power.  Nicodemus  was  right ;  no  man  can  do  the  works  which 
I  do  except  God  be  with  Him.  Ye  are  absolutely  inexcusable  for  not 
receiving  Me.  If  I  had  not  done  among  you  the  works  which  none  other 
man  had  done  ye  had  not  had  sin,  but  now  ye  have  no  cloak  for  your  sin. 
Now  ye  have  both  seen  and  hated  both  Me  and  My  Father".  Jesus  as  the 
divine  ambassador  brought  with  Him  His  credentials.  Whatever  weight 
may  now  be  given  the  evidential  value  of  miracles,  it  is  doubtless  true  that 
He  regarded  them  as  a  mark  of  His  authority  as  the  Son  of  God. 

Secondly.  The  Father  bears  witness.  "  The  Father  which  sent  Me 
hath  borne  witness  to  Me  ".  Our  Lord  here  refers  to  His  baptism,  when  as 
the  Spirit  descended  upon  Him,  the  Father's  voice  declared  :  "  This  is  My 
beloved  Son,  hear  ye  Him  ".  He  must  have  referred  also  to  that  marvelous 
scene  upon  the  mountain,  when  Moses,  the  law-giver  and  Elijah,  greatest  of 
the  prophets,  representing  the  old  dispensation,  came  out  of  heaven  long 
enough  to  do  homage  to  Him  who  was  to  supersede  the  law,  and  in  whom 
the  prophecies  were  to  find  their  fulfilment.  These  representatives  of  a 
passing  era  faded  away,  leaving  before  the  amazed  apostles  the  solitary 
figure  of  their  Lord,  while  in  their  ears  rang  the  words:  "  This  is  My  beloved 
Son  in  Whom  I  am  well  pleased ;  hear  ye  Him  ". 

Thirdly.  Our  Saviour  brings  forward  as  a  final  witness  the  Jewish 
Scriptures.  In  Moses,  in  the  prophets,  and  indeed  in  all  the  Scriptures  is 
found  testimony  as  to  the  character  and  work  of  the  Messiah.  The  portrait 
there  drawn  finds  its  original  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  So  clear  and  striking 
and  accurate  the  likeness  that  Moses  himself,  in  whom  the  Jews  trusted, 
would  condemn  them  for  rejecting  their  Saviour.  "There  is  one  that 
accuseth  you,  even  Moses,  in  whom  ye  trust.  For  had  ye  believed  Moses 
ye  would  have  believed  Me,  for  he  wrote  of  Me  ". 

I  have  thus  simply  indicated  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  teaching  of  this 
passage.  If  I  am  correct,  every  day  is  in  a  sense  a  judgment  day.  Jesus 
is  speaking  to  men  now  engrossed  in  business,  consumed  by  ambition, 
drunken  with  pleasures,  sodden  in  sin.  He  cries  to  them :  "Wilt  thou  be 
made  whole  ?  "  If  they  hear,  they  shall  live.  Oh  that  His  voice  might  be 
heard  above  the  din  of  trade,  the  rush  of  commerce,  the  shouts  and  laughter 
of  revelry !  Alas !  how  many  refuse  to  listen.  Like  the  Jews  they  would 
away  with  Him.  Like  the  Jews,  too,  all  such  call  down  unutterable  woes 
upon  themselves.     His  blood  be  on  us  and  our  children  forever ! 

His  word  is  true.     "When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  glory,  and 


THE   WORKS  OF  JESUS.— JUDGMENT,  129 

all  His  holy  angels  with  Him,  then  shall  He  sit  on  the  throne  of  His 
glory,  and  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations;  and  He  shall  sep- 
arate them  one  from  another  as  the  shepherd  separateth  the  sheep  from 
the  goats;  and  He  shall  set  the  sheep  on  His  right  hand,  but  the  goats  on 
the  left  ".  Ah  !  that  right  hand  and  left  hand  !  "  You  seem,  sir  ",  said  Mrs. 
Adams  to  Dr.  Johnson,  when  the  fear  of  death  and  the  judgment  lay  heavy 
upon  him,  "  You  seem  to  forget  the  merits  of  our  Redeemer  ".  "  Madam", 
said  the  honest  old  man,  "  I  do  not  forget  the  merits  of  my  Redeemer;  but 
my  Redeemer  has  said  that  He  will  set  some  on  His  right  hand  and  some 
on  His  left".  It  were  well  if  men  were  to  remember  that  there  is  a  right 
hand  and  a  left.  There  is  inextricable  confusion  here,  but  there  will  be  a 
separation  there.  It  is  sometimes  impossible  here  to  discern  between  those 
who  serve  God  and  those  who  do  not;  but  then  every  mask  will  be  torn 
off  and  every  dissembler  revealed  in  his  true  character.  I  have  stood  in  the 
dimly  lighted  room  of  a  photographer  watching  with  great  interest  the 
development  of  plates.  As  they  lie  side  by  side  there  is  no  apparent  differ- 
ence betw^een  them.  But  when  they  are  dipped  into  the  developing  fluid,  a 
change  gradually  takes  place.  On  this  appears  the  sweet  face  of  a  pure  and 
innocent  child ;  on  that  the  harsh  and  angular  features  of  one  who  has  seen 
much  of  toil  and  hardship ;  on  another  the  coarse  and  bloated  countenance 
of  a  sensualist;  and  on  still  another  the  fierce  and  brutish  expression  of  the 
hardened  criminal.  Under  the  magic  of  the  photographer's  art,  every 
characteristic  is  transcribed  with  literal  exactness  upon  the  sensitive  plate 
and  faithfully  and  permanently  preserved.  Thus  in  the  blazing  light  of  the 
judgment,  men  will  stand  revealed  as  they  are  and  not  as  they  seem. 

Ah !  that  right  hand  and  left  hand  !  Only  two  classes ;  only  two 
destinies.  Every  man  must  stand  in  one  of  these  classes.  Every  man  must 
enter  upon  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  destinies,  which  will  be  decided  by 
his  attitude  toward  the  life-giver  and  judge.  By  a  fixed  and  unalterable 
gravitation  every  man  will  go  to  his  own  place,  whither  his  affinities  bear 
him.  One  has  beautifully  and  powerfully  said  :  "  There  are  two  twilights — 
the  twilight  of  evening  and  the  twilight  of  morning;  and  therefore  God's 
question  to  us  is  not  how  much  light  have  we,  but  which  way  do  we  face,  to 
the  night  or  to  the  day?  Not  what  art  thou,  but  what  wilt  thou,  is  the 
supreme  question.  It  is  the  answer  to  this  which  sets  some  on  the  right 
hand  and  some  on  the  left". 


*  THE  SECRET  OF  JESUS'  LIFE. 

(St.  John  5  :  30.) 

tBY    REV.    JOHN    BALCOlVt    SKAAV,    D.    T>., 

Pastor  of  the  West  End  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York. 

There  are  four  Scriptures,  all  the  sayings  of  Jesus  and  all  found  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  which  define  for  me  the  basic  secret  of  Jesus'  life.  John 
6 :  38 — "  For  I  came  down  from  heaven,  not  to  do  My  own  will,  but  the  will 
of  Him  that  sent  Me" — doing  the  will  of  God  the  purpose  oi  Christ's  life. 
John  4  :  34 — "  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me  " — doing  the 
-will  of  God  the  pleasure  of  Christ's  life,  its  very  sustenance  and  inspiration, 
its  enjoyment  and  satisfaction.  John  5  :  30 — "  Because  I  seek  not  Mine  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  the  Father  which  sent  Me  " — doing  the  will  of  God,  the 
pursuit  ox  principle  of  Christ's  life.  John  8  :  29 — "  I  do  always  those  things 
that  please  Him  " — doing  the  will  of  God  \he  practice  of  Christ's  life. 

This  was  our  Lord's  unique  and  unqualified  claim.  Was  it  substantiated  ? 
Did  He  give  full  proof  to  the  world  that  doing  God's  will  was  the  purpose, 
the  pleasure,  the  pursuit  and  the  practice  of  His  life  ?  That  He  always  dili- 
gently sought  to  know,  and  earnestly  set  Himself  to  do  God's  will  is  beyond 
dispute.  A  study  of  His  prayer-life  fully  attests  this.  "  Strong  Son  of  God  " 
though  He  was,  aware  of  His  appointed  mission  in  the  world  as  He  must 
have  been,  yet  was  He  constantly  asking  His  Father  what  direction  His 
way  should  take  or  what  turns  in  the  way  already  taken  He  should  make. 
"  What  wilt  Thou  have  Me  to  do  ?  "  was  His  perpetual  inquiry.  If  ever  any- 
one had  less  need  than  another  to  pray,  was  it  not  Jesus  Christ  ?  And  yet 
we  find  that  no  one  living  upon  our  earth  ever  prayed  so  much  as  did  He. 
He  alone  has  perfectly  obeyed  the  apostolic  injunction,  "  Pray  without 
ceasing  ".  Prayer  stood  closely  related  to  all  the  great  events  of  His  life — 
His  baptism.  His  temptation,  His  transfiguration.  His  agony  in  the  garden. 
His  crucifixion.  The  night  before  He  chose  the  twelve.  He  was  until  morn- 
ing in  the  mountain  alone  with  His  Father.  When  the  Roman  guard  came 
to  arrest  Him  He  was  by  Himself  in  prayer,  and  did  He  not  die  with  a 
prayer  upon  His  lips  ?  What  a  testimony  to  His  prayer-life  it  was  that  the 
disciples  who  took  the  walk  to  Emmaus  with  Him  the  day  of  His  resurrection 
did  not  identify  Him  till  ihey  heard  His  voice  in  prayer.  We  sometimes 
feel  that  at  best  we  are  but  children  and  dare  not  stir  a  step  alone.  This 
was  Jesus'  characteristic  and  continuous  attitude.  He  was  supremely  the 
son  of  solitude,  yet  He  was  preeminently  a  man  among  men,  ever  going 
about  doing  good. 


*  Delivered  at  the  Fifth  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  February  lo,  1904. 
t  Now  Pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

130 


THE  SECRET  OF  JESUS'  LIFE,  131 

This  constant  converse  with  His  Father  was  the  source  of  His  wisdom, 
His  patience  and  poise,  His  steadfastness  and  strength,  His  cheerfulness 
and  courage.     It  was  this  which  made 

"  His  face  a  mirror  of  His  holy  mind, 
His  mind  a  temple  for  all  lovely  things  to  flock  to 
And  inhabit ". 

Living  such  an  uninterrupted  prayer-life  as  this,  He  came  to  know  the 
will  of  God  fully  and  explicitly,  and  His  life  was  lived  with  one  sole  com- 
manding passion, — to  make  that  will  known  to  men.  The  words  He  spoke, 
the  deeds  He  wrought,  the  influence  breathing  itself  forth  from  His  person. 
His  character  and  life,  were  but  the  utterance,  the  exaltation  of  that  will.  In 
whatsoever  capacity  He  appears,  as  the  Messiah  of  Matthew,  or  the  servant 
of  Mark,  or  the  universal  Saviour  of  Luke,  or  the  divine  Son  of  God  of 
John,  He  is  everywhere  and  always  the  synonym,  the  embodiment,  the 
interpretation  of  the  will  of  God — the  declaration  of  what  God  thinks,  what 
God  desires,  what  He  purposes  and  what  He  delights  in — in  a  word  what 
God  is  and  what  He  desires  man  to  be. 

"On  one  great  mission  bent, 
He  sped  for  God,  forever  unencumbered 
Of  earthly  clogs,  whereby  our  souls  are  numbered 
In  glory  excellent". 

There  can  be  no  question,  then,  but  what  He  always  sought  to  know 
and  follow  the  will  of  the  Father.  That  stands  forever  true.  But  did  He 
perfectly  do  that  will }  In  other  words,  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  doing  the 
will  of  God  was  the  purpose,  the  pleasure  and  the  pursuit  of  His  life.  Was 
this  the  actual  practice  of  Jesus  ? 

1.  The  consciousness  of  Christ  is  no  slight  or  uncertain  factor  in  this 
problem.  All  the  laws  of  psychology  must,  do  give  it  emphasis.  A  sane, 
true,  high  soul,  such  as  Jesus  confessedly  was,  could  have  had  none  other 
than  a  trustworthy  consciousness.  When,  therefore,  looking  into  the  face 
of  His  Father,  He  said:  "  I  do  always  the  things  that  please  Him;  "  and 
again,  "  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me",  He  established 
the  strongest  possible  presumption  in  favor  of  His  claim. 

2.  Another  test  is  His  Father's  unqualified  approval  of  Him.  This 
approval  would,  of  course,  not  have  been  given  if  He  had  failed  to  do  the 
will  of  God.  That  approval  is  everywhere  implied,  and  the  fact  that  only 
once  did  Jesus  feel  Himself  without  it,  and  that  when  circumstances  for 
which  He  was  not  responsible  had  clouded  His  consciousness,  strongly 
confirms  the  implication.  Twice,  however,  this  approval  was  explicitly 
spoken  by  the  Father  from  heaven.  First  at  the  baptism :  "  This  is  My 
beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased  ",  a  word  which  doubtless  covered 
the  whole  of  His  life  up  to  that  point  and  is  a  suggestive  key  which  unlocks 
for  us  the  so-called  "  hidden  years"  ;  and  again  at  the  transfiguration,  when, 
as  St.  Peter  tells  us,  "  He  received  from  God  the  Father,  honor  and  glory, 
when  there  came  such  a  voice  to  Him  from  the  excellent  glory,  This  is  My 
beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased  ". 


132  THE  GOSPEL  OF  SI.  JOHN. 

3.  But  better  than  His  self-consciousness  even,  still  better  than  His 
Father's  implied  or  spoken  approval,  was  the  sinless  life  He  set  before  the 
world.  His  sinlessness  was  more  than  a  self-preferred  claim — it  was  an 
accepted  fact.  No  man  did  convict  Him  of  sin.  The  prince  of  this  world 
did  come  but  found  nothing  in  Him.  His  contemporaries  testified  to  His 
purity,  and  succeeding  ages  have  confirmed  the  testimony,  until  an  apos- 
trophe like  that  of  our  Sidney  Lanier  to-day  awakens  universal  applause : 

"  But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  sovereign  seer  of  time. 
But  Thee,  U  poets'  poet,  wisdom's  tongue, 
But  Thee,  O  man's  best  man,  O  love's  best  love, 
O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labor  writ, 
O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King  or  Priest, — 
What  ?/"or  jjrA  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse. 
What  least  defect,  or  shadow  of  defect, 
What  rumor,  tattled  by  an  enemy, 
Or  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace, 
Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's,  or  death's — 
Oh !  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee, 
Jesus,  good  Paragon,  Thou  Crystal  Christ  ?" 

In  view  of  these  facts  are  we  not  justified  in  accepting  it  as  an  absolute 
fact  that  Jesus  did  perfectly  obey  His  Father,  and  that  His  claim  is  thus 
firmly  established,  that  doing  the  will  of  God  was  not  only  the  purpose,  the 
pleasure  and  the  pursuit  of  His  life,  but  also  its  actual  and  constant  practice. 
No  other  soul  was  as  equal  to  Wasson's  quaint  confession  as  was  the  Man 
of  Galilee : 

"  If  I  would  pray, 
I've  naught  to  say. 

But  this  :  That  God  would  be  God  still. 
For  grace  to  give, 
So  still  to  give, 
And  sweeter  than  my  wish  His  will". 

Is  not  our  next  logical  question  this  :  What  was  the  personal,  practical 
product  of  such  perfect  practicing  of  the  will  divine  ?  What  sort  of  a  char- 
acter-structure did  it  rear  ?  What  type  or  pattern  did  it  leave  to  the  world  ? 
In  a  word,  what  kind  of  a  life  did  it  produce  ?  Theoretically,  the  effect  of 
such  a  practicing  of  the  will  of  God  should  have  been  the  ideal,  the  perfect. 
If  the  will  of  God  is  the  best  possible  will,  if  it  justifies  the  Bible's  repre- 
sentations of  it  as  "  That  good  and  acceptable  and  perfect  will "  of  God,  if 
John's  dictum  be  true,  "He  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  forever", 
then  three  things  may  be  demanded  of  such  a  person : 

1.  That  the  perfect  doing  of  that  perfect  will  of  God  should  produce 
the  highest  possible  character.  Why?  Because  God  is  the  Creator,  and 
only  He  can  make  such  laws,  which,  when  obeyed,  will  insure  one's  being 
its  highest  end. 

2.  That  the  perfect  doing  of  the  perfect  will  of  God  should  bring  the 
greatest  possible  happiness.  God  is  the  great  Father  and  He  would  make 
only  those  laws  for  His  children,  which,  on  being  obeyed,  would  contribute 
to  their  fullest  happiness. 


THE  SECRET  OF  JESUS'  LIFE.  133 

3.  That  the  perfect  doing  of  the  perfect  will  of  God  should  result  in 
the  longest  possible  continuance  of  being.  God  is  eternal  and  legislates, 
therefore,  only  for  eternity.  God  is  man's  great  benefactor,  and,  where  His 
will  is  not  intercepted,  must  preserve  my  soul  "  From  this  time  forth  and 
even  forevermore ".  To  put  it  succinctly,  complete  perfection,  complete 
pleasure  and  complete  permanence  must  follow  from  the  full  surrender  of 
the  human  will  to  the  will  divine. 

What  do  we  find  to  have  been  the  case  in  our  Lord's  life  ?  Did  He  not 
fulfil  each  of  these  three  great  conditions?  He  was  not  only  the  noblest, 
the  purest,  the  holiest  character  of  time,  but  He  is  the  only  perfect  man 
our  race  has  produced.  Human  imagination  can  picture  to  itself  no  higher 
order  of  being  than  He.  Do  not  the  Norsemen's  title  of  "The  White 
Christ ",  and  Lanier's  representation  of  Him  as  "  The  Crystal  Christ " 
command  universal  consent  ? 

What  of  the  second  test?  Did  not  perfect  obedience  to  the  Father's 
will  yield  Him  complete  happiness  ?  He  was  "  The  man  of  sorrows  ",  but 
He  was  "Anointed  with  the  oil  of  gladness  "  above  His  fellows.  He  was 
able  to  rise  above  more  trial,  temptation,  opposition  and  hatred  than  has 
come  to  any  other  being  on  our  earth,  and  yet  He  was  calm,  serene,  brave, 
and  glad  through  it  all.  "Who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him, 
endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set  down  on  the  right  hand 
of  the  throne  of  God  ". 

Apply  the  third  test — the  longest  possible  existence.  Is  He  not  by  all 
odds  the  first  of  the  immortals  ?  Was  not  death  powerless  to  hold  Him  ? 
Is  He  not  now  alive  forevermore  ?  Has  He  not  the  keys  of  hades  and 
death  ?     He  who  rests  his  faith  in  Him  may  sing  with  the  utmost  confidence  : 

"  To  Thy  beyond  no  fear  1  give, 
Because  Thou  livest,  I  live. 
Unsleeping  Friend,  why  should  I  wake 
Troublesome  thought  to  take 
For  any  strange  tomorrow  ?    In  Thy  hand 
Days  and  eternities  like  flowers  expand 

"  Odors  from  blossoming  worlds  unknown 
Across  my  path  are  blown  ; 
Thy  robes  trail  myrrh  and  spice 
From  farthest  paradise; 
I  walk  through  Thy  fair  universe  with  Thee, 
And  san  me  in  Thine  immortality". 

And  now,  having  reached  this  high  point,  where  are  we  ?  We  have 
looked  upon  His  claim  that  God's  will  was  the  guiding  star,  nay,  the  rising 
sun,  of  His  life;  we  have  examined  the  facts  upon  which  that  master  claim 
rests,  and  assured  ourselves  that  it  was  warrantable  and  conclusive.  We 
have  scrutinized  the  effect  of  Christ's  obedience  and  found  it  yielded  a 
normal  product,  answering  the  soul's  threefold  aspiration  for  perfection, 
pleasure  and  permanence.  Are  we  not,  therefore,  face  to  face  with  the 
question  as  to  what  is  the  essential,  practical  import  of  all  this  for  us  ? 
Surely  it  can  have  but  one  explicit  and  ethical  meaning  for  us.     It  is  this  : 


t34  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

that  if  we  would  come  out  at  a  like  goal,  we  must  take  the  same  path  Jesus 
chose.  Do  we  want  to  attain  to  the  highest  character?  Do  we  want  abid- 
ing happiness  ?  Do  we  crave  a  true  immortality  ?  All  this  has  but  one 
secret — doing  the  will  of  the  Father  in  heaven.  Until  Christ's  secret  is  ours 
we  shall  not  fulfil  the  genius  of  our  being ;  we  shall  chafe  and  fret,  be  ill  at 
ease  and  generally  unhappy ;  and  the  life  within  us,  instead  of  expanding, 
will  grow  shallow  and  negative  and  gradually  die  out. 

"  Have  you  ever  thought,  my  friend, 
As  you  daily  toil  and  plod 
In  the  busy  paths  of  men, 

How  still  are  the  ways  of  God  ? 

"  Have  you  ever  paused  in  the  din 
Of  traffic's  insistent  cry, 
To  think  of  the  calm  in  the  cloud. 

Of  the  peace  in  your  glimpse  of  the  sky  ? 

"  Go  out  in  the  silent  fields, 

That  quietly  yield  you  meat. 
And  let  them  rebuke  your  noise, 

Whose  patience  is  still  and  sweet". 

Ah !  this  is  our  difficulty.  Our  wills  are  in  command,  and  not  God's 
will.  Victor  Hugo  once  said,  "  Men  do  not  lack  strength,  but  will ".  It  is 
God's  will  they  lack.  By  so  much  as  that  will  is  not  ours,  by  so  much  our 
characters  are  defective,  our  hearts  discordant,  our  lives  de-vitalized.  No 
one  has  got  closer  to  this  truth,  it  would  seem  to  me,  than  our  Quaker  poet, 
who  has  in  a  single  verse  forever  signalized  the  truth  : 

"  And  so  I  sometimes  think  our  prayers 
Might  well  be  merged  in  one. 
And  nest  and  perch  and  hearth  and  church 
Repeat, '  Thy  will  be  done ' ". 

This  step  but  leads  to  another.  Having  come  face  to  face  with  this 
secret  of  secrets,  we  ask  most  eagerly  how  we  may  make  it  ours.  How 
may  we  be  sure  that  we  have  taken  God's  will  ?  We  do  well  to  ask  that 
question,  for  there  is  a  great  deal  of  talk  these  days  about  absolute  surrender, 
which  is  ignorant,  unscriptural,  unphilosophical,  and  generally  wide  of  the 
mark.  In  many  quarters  the  word  surrender  has  become  scarcely  more 
than  a  shibboleth.  People  talk  glibly  of  surrender  who  do  not  know  what 
surrender  means. 

{(i)  To  begin  with,  it  is  not  a  thing  of  the  emotions,  but  solely  of  the 
will.  It  is,  therefore,  a  step  to  be  taken  deliberately,  dispassionately,  and, 
above  all,  positively.  I  have  known  people  to  declare  their  surrender  when 
they  were  under  excited  feeling,  who  were  at  the  time  as  little  capable  of 
taking  so  serious  a  step  as  a  child. 

{b)  It  is  a  thing  of  fact  and  not  fancy.  A  prominent  religious  teacher, 
speaking  to  a  great  conference  of  Christian  people,  a  few  years  ago,  sug- 
gested that  only  when  one  could  sign  his  name  to  a  blank  sheet  of  paper 
and  hand  it  back  to  God  for  Him  to  fill  in  as  He  chose,  was  he  really  justi- 
fied in  professing  surrender.     I  submit  that  this  is  a  specious  test,  and  its 


THE  SECRET  OF  JESUS'  LIFE.  135 

eflfect  most  unwholesome.  Imagine  Christ  working  Himself  up  into  such 
an  unreal  state.  He  dealt  with  the  will  of  God  as  it  came  to  Him  at  the 
time,  and  not  as  it  might  address  itself  to  Him  at  some  future  juncture. 
The  call  which  (iod's  will  makes  to  us  in  the  present  is  the  only  true  test  of 
surrender.  God  has  put  me  in  a  hard  place;  do  I  accept  it  from  Him  and 
in  no  way  fight  against  the  appointment  ?  My  position  is  not  what  I  like, 
but  God  keeps  me  in  it.  Am  I  content  therewith  ?  My  life  is  an  aimless, 
circumscribed  one — a  tread  mill,  a  tedious  round,  the  dead  level  of  the 
commonplace.  Am  I  willing  to  keep  on  and  be  cheerful,  if  (}od  does  not 
turn  me  upon  another  path  1 

{(■)  And  this,  mark  you  well,  is  only  the  first  step — the  beginning. 
Surrender,  as  I  understand  it,  is  a  compound  act.  I  had  almost  said  a 
complex  act.  It  is  a  ladder  of  three  rungs,  set  far  apart  and  mounted  only 
by  long,  hard  strides.  The  first  rung  is  submission  to  God's  will — resigna- 
tion, as  we  more  commonly  express  it.  The  second  is  obedience  to  God's 
will.  Not  merely  accepting  it  negatively,  as  if  there  were  no  other  alterna- 
tive, but  giving  ourselves  gladly,  fully,  loyally,  to  its  fulfilment.  The  third 
is  exalting  God's  will — accounting  it  and  rejoicing  in  it  as  the  best  possible 
will.  Faber  was  standing  on  this  top  rung  when  he  breathed  that  immortal 
prayer : 

"  I  worship  thee,  sweet  will  of  God, 
And  all  thy  ways  adore; 
And  every  day  I  live,  I  seem 
To  love  thee  more  and  more. 

"  He  always  wins  who  sides  with  God ; 
To  him  no  chance  is  lost. 
God's  will  seems  sweetest  to  him  when 
It  triumphs  at  his  cost. 

"  111  that  He  blesses  is  our  good, 
And  unblest  good  is  ill, 
And  all  is  right  that  seems  most  wrong, 
If  it  be  His  sweet  will  ". 

How  many  of  us  have  brought  our  feet  to  that  rung  ?  Until  we  have, 
we  cannot  make  claim  to  full  surrender  to  the  will  of  God,  but  if  we  have 
reached  that  high  and  holy  station,  we  are  fast  becoming  our  truest  and  best 
selves ;  it  will  be  easy  to  be  brave  and  sweet  and  reposeful,  and  natural  for 
us  to  be  happy ;  and  we  shall  rise  above  all  ordinary,  temporal  limitations, 
passing  out  of  the  bondage  of  the  material  into  the  glorious  life  and  liberty 
of  the  Son  of  God. 

"  To  be  made  with  Thee  one  spirit, 

Is  the  boon  I  longingly  ask. 

To  have  no  bars  'twixt  my  soul  and  Thme, 

Myself,  Thy  servant,  for  any  task. 

Life,  life,  I  may  enter  through  Thee,  the  door. 

Saved  and  sheltered  forevermore". 


*  FAITH    IN    CHRIST    DEMANDED    BY    GOD    AND    THE    SPRING    OF 

RELIGIOUS   ACTION. 

(St.  John  6  :  29.) 

BY    REV.    T^TA-THAISr    K.    "\VOOr>,    D.    T)., 

President  of  Newton  Theological  Institution,  Newton  Centre,  Mass. 

It  is  needless  for  me  to  enter  into  introductions.  You  have  already,  in 
this  course  of  study  and  addresses,  had  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  "  Pearl  of 
the  Gospels  ",  analyzed  by  competent,  scholarly  and  devout  men.  I  said 
devout  men,  because  it  remains  forever  true  that,  "  If  any  man  willeth  to  do 
His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching  whether  it  is  of  God  "  (John  7  :  r^). 
Devoutness  is  a  key  which  unlocks  the  choicest  treasures  of  such  a  Gospel 
as  that  of  John.  One  must  sit  fixedly  with  him  in  his  quiet  chambers  of 
meditation,  and  in  the  atmosphere  of  peace,  if  one  would  think  his  way  into 
the  heart  of  his  Gospel.  The  simple  historic  facts  could  be  somewhat  easily 
narrated,  but  such  an  interpretation  of  them,  and  such  a  philosophy  of 
them,  and  such  a  living  of  them  over  again  as  John  gives  could  come  only 
out  of  a  heart  and  mind  which  had  long  been  occupied  by  Jesus  Christ. 
The  facts  are  given,  but  they  are  the  facts  explained  after  long  pondering  in 
the  luminous  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  His  Gospel  is  peculiarly,  there- 
fore, food  and  drink  to  the  soul  which  hungers  and  thirsts  after  Christ. 

I  will  proceed  at  once  to  my  assigned  service  and  theme  which  was 
phrased  for  me,  "  Faith  in  Christ  Demanded  by  God  and  the  Spring  of 
Religious  Action  ",  John  6  :  29 — "  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe 
on  Him  whom  He  hath  sent  ". 

There  is  a  kind  of  faith  which  Jesus  both  commends  and  commands  as 
an  indispensable  prerequisite  or  condition  in  order  to  His  healing  of  men's 
infirmities,  but  which,  in  so  far  as  we  have  any  evidence,  is  not  the  saving 
faith  through  which  the  soul  is  knit  to  Christ.  Significantly,  it  occurs  always 
in  connection  with  miracles  of  healing. 

The  Roman  Centurion  (Matt.  8:10)  is  emphatically  commended  for  his 
faith  in  expecting  the  healing  of  his  servant,  and  yet  there  is  no  evidence 
that  he  was  then  or  became  afterward  a  disciple  of  Christ.  His  faith  was 
not  of  the  kind  which  knits  the  soul  to  Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord.  The 
men  who  brought  the  palsied  man  (Matt.  9 : 2)  and  let  him  down  before 
Christ  to  be  healed,  were  also  strongly  commended  for  their  faith,  although 
there  is  no  evidence  that  they  were  in  any  sense  disciples  of  Christ.  Indeed, 
the  circumstances  point  inferentially  and  strongly  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
not  disciples,  but  only  a  part  of  the  great  multitude  who  had  seen  the  miracles 


Delivered  at  the  Third  Conference,  held  at  the  Beneficent  Congregational  Church,  December  g,  1903. 

136 


FAITH  IN  CHRIS  T.  137 

of  Christ  in  other  places.  The  two  blind  men  whose  history  is  given  in 
Matt.  9 :  27-31,  were  given  sight  with  the  words,  "According  to  your  faith  be 
it  done  unto  you  ". 

Jesus  had  previously  asked  them,  "  Believe  ye  that  I  am  able  to  do  this  ?  " 
His  ability  to  give  them  sight  was  the  only  point  on  which  their  faith  fast- 
ened itself.  There  is  no  evidence  that  they  received  any  other  benefit  from 
Christ  than  that  of  eyesight.  Apparently  they  were  not  joined  to  Him  in 
discipleship,  although  they  did  afterwards  spread  abroad  His  fame  as  a 
miracle  worker  who  had  special  ability  to  give  blind  men  their  sight.  Blind 
Bartimeus  (Mark  10:46-52)  also  had  a  faith  which  centered  in  his  belief  in 
Christ's  ability  to  give  him  sight,  but  there  is  no  convincing  evidence  that 
his  faith  embraced  Christ  in  any  inwardly  saving  sense.  It  is  a  mere  possi- 
bility that  V.  52  may  indicate  some  form  of  discipleship  when  it  says,  "And 
straightway  he  received  his  sight  and  followed  Him  in  the  way".  Allot 
these  are  illustrations  of  a  faith  which  our  Lord  commended  and  without 
which  He  would  not  perform  His  miracles.  It  was  a  condition  requfred  of 
man  but  was  of  a  sort  {sui  generis)  which  must  be  described  or  defined  by 
the  results  affected  through  it. 

What,  then,  is  this  faith  and  wherein  does  it  differ  from  that  faith 
which  is  always  allied  with  inward  union  with  Christ  in  salvation  ?  This 
faith  rests  on  evidences  of  miracle  working  which  they  had  seen  or  had 
heard  reported  in  definite  details.  They  believed,  on  the  ground  of  what 
they  had  seen  and  heard,  that  Jesus  had  ability  to  heal,  and  this  confident 
assent  to  His  power  was  their  faith.  It  did  not  bind  them  to  discipleship. 
It  did  not  reach  a  state  of  soul-surrender  to  Christ,  nor  a  vital  union  of  the 
soul  with  its  rightful  Lord.  It  did  not  involve  an  inward  moral  obedience  of 
heart  and  life  to  the  rule  of  Christ.  They  were  not,  in  any  evangelical 
sense,  believers  in  Christ. 

But  yet  this  faith,  as  far  as  it  went,  rested  on  the  same  grounds  as  the 
higher  faith,  which  is  both  the  condition  and  the  expression  of  the  regener- 
ated life.  Both  kinds  of  faith  alike  rest  on  evidence,  the  first  kind  on 
evidence  of  the  ability  or  power  of  Christ,  the  second  kind  not  only  on  the 
power  of  Christ,  but  on  the  perfectness  of  His  moral  character,  on  His  claim 
to  be  divine,  and  on  His  ability  to  give  eternal  life.  If  several  instances  had 
been  definitely  reported  to  the  blind  men,  and  especially  if  they  had  been 
witnesses  to  a  few  alleged  cures,  where  the  King  had  healed  men,  they 
would  have  believed  in  the  ability  of  the  King  to  heal,  somewhat  regardless 
of  what  sort  of  a  moral  character  the  King  might  possess.  I  do  not  see 
that  the  faith  of  these  men  implied  any  assent  to  the  moral  character  of 
Christ,  or  any  acceptance  of  His  divine  claims.  It  reached  only  to  the  point 
that  He  had  ability  to  heal,  as  was  abundantly  attested  by  evidences  of 
such  healing  already  accomplished  among  the  people. 

Now  saving  faith  rests  on  this  evidence  also,  but  goes  so  far  beyond  it 
as  to  give  it  a  wholly  different  and  unique  quality.  It  assents  to  His  ability 
to  heal,  His  character  as  Holy  and  perfect.  His  claim  to  be  the  Son  of 
(iod,  and  such  a  voluntary  embracing  of  Christ,  as  issues  in   a  submission 


138  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  all  the  will  and  the  life  to  the  authority  and  the  rule  of  Christ.  The  first 
sort  of  faith  is  that  ordinary  confidence  which  arises  upon  presentation  of 
certain  evidences,  which  seem  reasonable,  that  a  man  has  power  or  ability. 
Such  faith  may  lead  one  to  cast  one's  self  on  that  ability  for  help,  at  least 
to  the  necessary  extent.  It  may  be  for  physical  healing  only  as  in  these 
illustrations  from  the  Gospels.  It  does  not  imply  any  radical  change  in  the 
inner  life  or  in  the  outward  conduct. 

The  second  sort  of  faith  is  in  the  sphere  of  the  moral  life  where  there 
is  voluntary  assent  to  the  truth  that  there  can  be  but  one  ruler,  lawgiver 
and  Lord,  and  that  one,  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  the  soul  yields  unhesitating 
obedience  and  love.  This  faith  means  a  radical  change  of  both  inner 
life  and  outward  conduct.  It  is  the  invariable  accompanyer  of  the  regener- 
ating work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  expresses  the  new  attitude  of  the  soul 
toward  its  new  found  Saviour  and  Lord. 

I  have  been  thus  careful  to  analyze  these  two  sorts  of  faith  and  to 
differentiate  them  because  they  are  both  still  present  in  human  life  as 
much  as  when  our  Lord  was  here  in  the  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us.  Men 
may  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  able  to  do  what  He  says  that  He  can  do, 
and  even  assent  to  His  claim  to  be  divine,  and  assent  to  His  miracle- 
working  ability,  and  this  faith  may  be  a  very  genuine  one  of  its  sort,  but 
still  fall  far  short  of  that  faith  which  joins  the  soul  to  Christ  in  a  vital  union, 
so  that  a  man  may  say,  "  I  am  in  Christ ",  and  "  It  is  no  longer  I  that  live 
but  Christ  that  liveth  in  me  ;  and  that  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live 
in  faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God  "  (Galatians  2:  20).  This  kind 
of  faith  is  more  than  simple  intellectual  credence.  It  is  indeed  a  voluntary 
assent  to  Christ,  but  is  not  that  highest  assent  whose  expression  is  loyal  and 
loving  obedience.  It  is  so  different  in  degree  as  to  be  practically  different 
in  kind  from  the  faith  which  is  the  evidence  of  a  Christian  believer's 
"  union  with  Christ ".     It  is  not  evangelical  faith. 

A  second  though  inadequate  conception  of  faith  is  that  given  in 
Hebrews  11  :  i.  "  Now  faith  is  assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  a  conviction 
of  things  not  seen  ".  This  is  often  supposed  to  be  in  the  nature  of  an  exact 
definition.  In  reality  it  describes  but  one  aspect  of  faith.  The  remainder 
of  the  chapter,  in  which  is  the  muster-roll  of  heroes  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
shows  just  what  characteristic  of  faith  was  in  the  writer's  mind  when  he 
wrote  this  so-called  definition.  These  heroes  were  in  the  midst  of  great 
difficulties.  They  met  almost  insurmountable  obstacles.  They  suffered 
continual  contumely  and  obloquy.  They  were  robbed  of  their  earthly 
possessions.  They  were  hunted,  persecuted,  and  despoiled  of  the  things 
which  minister  to  the  outward  comfort  of  life.  In  their  constant  distresses 
and  deprivations,  they  saw  by  faith  "  things  "  which  should  be  their  own 
possessions  where  "there  was  none  to  molest  or  make  afraid  ",  and  other 
things  which  had  no  material  form,  and  hence  could  not  be  seen  as  could 
the  things  here  and  now.  Their  faith  grasped  and  embraced  these  things 
which  God  held  in  reserve  for  them  after  life's  weary  struggle  was  over.  So 
vivid  was   this   faith,   that  these  things  seemed  to  them  already  in  their 


FAITH  IN  CHRIST.  139 

possession,  although  they  were  only  "  hoped  for"  and  "not  seen  "  as  yet. 
"  For  they  that  say  such  things  make  it  manifest  that  they  are  seeking  after 
a  country  of  their  own  "  (Heb.  11:14). 

Now  it  is  true  that  faith  may  grasp  things,  seen  or  unseen,  but  that  is 
only  one  characteristic  of  it,  and  by  no  means  describes  its  true  nature.  It 
is  a  superficial  description  and  was  never  meant  to  define  the  essential 
nature  of  faith.  In  so  far  as  the  writer  intended  to  cover  one  phase  of  faith, 
it  covers  it  adequately,  but  it  is  not  an  adequate  definition  for  the  whole 
of  It,  Hence,  when  people  often  express  the  hope  or  expectation  of  a 
heavenly  home,  the  enjoyment  of  heavenly  things,  the  possession  of  heavenly 
estates,  and  other  supernal  equipments,  and  fancy  that  their  faith  grasps 
these  so  certainly  as  to  furnish  reasonable  ground  for  obtaining  them,  they 
labor  under  an  utter  misconception  of  what  true  faith  is,  both  in  its  nature 
and  in  its  objects.  Many  modern  Christians  have  their  whole  foreground  of 
faith  filled  with  "  things  hoped  for  "  which  are  better  than  what  they  now 
possess  ;  things  which  will  give  them  greater  comforts  than  they  now  enjoy  ; 
things  which  will  change  poverty  into  wealth,  and  want  into  affluence  ; 
things  which  will  stay  by  them  without  being  looked  after ; — in  a  word,  faith 
has  for  its  object  "  things  hoped  for  ".  Now  this  is  a  wholly  inadequate 
description  of  faith. 

The  same  writer  gives  a  far  clearer  and  more  essential  description  of 
faith  when  he  says,  "  By  faith  he  forsook  Egypt,  not  fearing  the  wrath  of  the 
king;  for  he  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible"  (Heb.  11  ra;).  This 
is  a  clear  recognition  of  the  personal  element  in  faith,  which  unites  heart 
to  heart,  soul  to  soul,  person  to  person.  Moses  laid  hold  on  God,  and  rested 
in  Him,  with  whole  confidence  that  God  would  take  care  of  things,  and 
would  provide  for  him  both  in  the  matter  of  his  safety  from  the  wrath  of 
the  king,  and  also  in  the  providential  guiding  of  his  steps.  God  was  the 
source  of  his  strength  to  endure,  and  the  object  of  his  faith.  This  state- 
ment, therefore,  uncovers  and  discloses  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  primal 
and  essential  principle  in  faith. 

The  word  faith  {pistis)  does  not  occur  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  occurs 
but  once  in  his  Epistles.  "And  this  is  the  victory  that  hath  overcome  the 
world,  even  our  faith  "  (i  John  5  :4).  The  word  occurs  frequently  in  every 
other  book  of  the  New  Testament,  except  in  the  writings  of  John.  It  has 
its  most  numerous  use  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  who  writes  it  almost  one 
hundred  and  fifty  times,  exclusive  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  word 
faith  must  certainly  have  been  a  very  familiar  everyday  word  on  the  lips  of 
the  early  Christian  disciples,  if  we  may  judge  by  this  frequent  use  of  it  in  the 
New  Testament  writings.  Hence  its  entire  absence  from  the  writings  of 
John,  with  the  single  exception,  must  require  a  careful  explanation  based 
on  an  analysis  of  the  psychology  of  the  religious  experience. 

The  one  time  when  he  uses  it  would  seem  to  be  a  case  where  his  pen 
slipped  into  the  use  of  the  word  which  was  so  familiar  to  all  about  him,  but 
which  was  not  his  own  habitual  and  deliberate  mode  of  conceiving  that 
relation  of  the  soul  to  God  in  Christ  which  is  called  faith.     I  am  the  more 


I40  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

persuaded  of  this  explanation  because  he  proceeds  instantly,  in  the  very 
next  sentence  (v.  5),  to  emphasize  his  own  usual  idea  of  the  nature  and 
action  of  faith.  "And  who  is  he  that  overcometh  the  world  but  he  that 
believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  ?  "  In  other  words,  John  does  not 
view  faith  as  an  abstract  thing,  or  as  a  definable  entity.  But  while  he  does 
not  use  the  word  faith  {pisiis)  excepting  the  one  time,  he  does  use  the  verb  to 
believe  {pisteud)  more  than  a  hundred  times.  Hence  it  would  appear  that 
his  conception  of  faith  holds  in  it  that  subtle  shade  of  difference  which 
exists  between  a  noun  and  its  cognate  verb.  He  thinks  of  it  always  in  the 
spirit  and  mould  which  are  characteristic  of  a  verb.  The  noun  faith  is 
abstract  and  definitional  of  an  entity.  The  verb  "  to  believe "  has  in  it 
action,  movement,  life,  and  especially  in  view  of  its  supreme  object.  It  is 
impossible  to  imagine  John,  with  his  modes  of  thought,  writing  such  a  state- 
ment of  faith  as  that  in  Heb.  1 1  :  i .  It  is  wholly  foreign  both  to  his  exper- 
ience and  to  his  point  of  view.  His  thought  lies  in  the  other  hemisphere. 
He  does  not  look  into  the  soul  of  man  to  find  and  analyze  faith.  He 
looks  first  at  Jesus  Christ,  whom  he  sees  luminous,  gracious,  redeeming, 
almighty,  and  then  secondly  at  the  soul  leaping  forth  to  embrace  Him  and 
appropriate  Him.  Hence  it  seems  to  me  that  John's  conception  of  faith 
is  more  closely  allied  to  life,  action,  vital  union,  than  it  is  even  to  the  intel- 
lectual perception  of  the  truth,  however  clear. 

It  is  easy  to  place  the  ictus  on  either  of  these  two  sides  of  faith.  The 
perceptional  side,  with  all  its  clear  vision  of  Christ  and  the  glorious  power 
and  passion  of  His  person,  may  seem  the  most  important  side ;  or  the  side 
of  impulse  and  life,  which  spring  forth  in  fruitful  currents  from  the  knowing 
of  Christ,  may  seem  the  most  emphatic  to  the  man  who  is  in  closest  relations 
with  his  fellow  man.  I  am  unable  to  accept  the  statement  of  Professor  William 
Sanday,  of  Oxford,  although  I  have  the  profoundest  respect  for  his  scholarly 
opinions,  when  he  says,  "  Compared  with  St.  Paul's  conception,  we  may  say 
that  faith  with  St.  John  is  rather  contemplative  and  philosophic,  where  with 
St.  Paul  it  is  active  and  enthusiastic  "  (Sanday,  on  Romans,  p.  32).  This 
seems  to  me  an  interesting  and  curious  illustration  of  the  method  of  criti- 
cism on  subjective  grounds.  We  form  a  preconception  of  a  man's  mode  of 
life  or  of  his  personal  characteristics,  and  then  compel  the  interpretation 
or  description  of  all  his  thinking  or  acting  to  lie  in  that  mould. 

We  forget  that  man  is  almost  infinitely  diversified  in  his  ways  of  mental 
approach  to  a  subject  as  well  as  in  his  mental  moods.  He  will,  indeed, 
have  his  usual  method  of  thought,  but  it  will  be  broken  in  upon  again  and 
again,  and  the  unusual  will  usurp  its  place.  John  was  a  meditative  and 
philosophically  inclined  man,  but  that  does  not  preclude  his  thought  from 
being  cast  in  forms  of  intense  action.  He  conceives  activity,  however, 
from  the  side  of  the  inward  sources  and  states  rather  than  from  the  side  of 
outward  deeds,  and  especially  does  he  conceive  faith  from  the  view  point 
of  its  object,  Jesus  Christ,  rather  than  from  the  view  point  of  faith  as  a  pos- 
session of  the  soul. 

Leaving,  then,  for  the  time  Paul's  conception  of  faith,  I  should  say 


FAITH  IN  CHRIST.  141 

that  John's  conception  was  not  at  all  what  Professor  Sanday  suggests,  but 
rather  the  exact  opposite.  It  is  active,  moving,  living,  and  puts  its  emphasis 
on  the  life  side  of  faith,  or  in  other  words,  faith  is  the  activity  of  a  soul 
which  is  steadfastly  putting  itself  in  harmony  with  God.  The  one  impres- 
sion which  the  writings  of  John  make  upon  me  is  that  faith  is  the  expression 
of  a  life  at  work  in  all  holy  ways,  and  that  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  a  holy 
living  with  Christ  as  both  the  supreme  source  and  the  supreme  goal,  Paul 
in  his  keener  analysis  more  frequently  describes  faith  as  "  the  living  bond, 
the  secret  point  of  union  between  Christ  and  the  individual  soul,  the  unio 
mystica  ". 

But  we  must  scrutinize  more  carefully  the  varied  uses  of  the  word  faith 
in  the  New  Testament. 

(ii)     It  is  used  to  describe  the  body  of  Christian  doctrine. 

"  If  so  be  that  ye  continue  in  the  faith  "  (Col.  i  :  23). 
"  One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism  "  (Eph.  4  :  5). 
"  The     faith    which    was  once     for    all     delivered     to     the 
saints  "  (Jude  3). 
(b)     It  signifies  an  act  of  the  soul  toward  these  doctrines.     It  may  be 
favorable  or  adverse. 

"  So  belief  cometh  of  hearing,  and  hearing  by   the  word  of 

Christ"  (Rom.  10: 17). 
"  Thou  believest  that  God  is  one  ;  thou  doest  well :  the  demons 
also  believe,  and  shudder  "  (James  2  :  19). 
(r)     It  signifies  a  favorable  act  of  the  soul  toward  the  promises  of  God. 
This  is  the  familiar  use  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  especially  in 
connection  with  the  glorious  roster  of  the  heroes  of  the  faith  in  the  eleventh 
chapter. 

{(i)  It  signifies  an  attitude  of  the  soul  toward  the  works  of  God,  as  e.  g., 
Miracles.  "Though  ye  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works"  (John  10:38). 
"  By  faith  we  understand  that  the  worlds  have  been  framed  by  the  word  of 
God"  (Heb.  11  :3). 

(<?)  It  signifies  confidence  that  what  is  asked  in  prayer  God  will  grant. 
"  But  let  him  ask  in  faith  nothing  doubting  "  (James  i  :6). 

"And  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  him  that  is  sick  "  (James 

5:15).     In  James,  as  one  might  anticipate,  the  aspect  of 

faith  which  is  outstanding  to  his  thought  is  the  things  or 

works  which  are  brought  to  pass  through  it.     He  sees  and 

defines  faith  in  terms  of  results  which  are  manifest  in  the 

outward  life.     "Faith  apart  from  works  is  dead"  (James 

2  :26). 

(/)     It  is  an  act  of  the  soul  in  trust  or  confidence  in  a  person.     If  we 

are  looking  for  the  primary  and  essential  significance  of  faith  and  that  which 

gives  it  power,  it  will  be  found  in  this  last  statement  which  is  really  basal 

for  all  the  other  uses  of  the  word.     Faith  is  an  act  of  trust  or  confidence  in 

a  person.     Christian  faith  is  an  act  of  trust  or  confidence  in  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is,  therefore,  intensely  personal.     It  may  believe  in  a  doctrine,  or  prom- 


142  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ise,  or  work,  but  it  believes  in  these  because  it  trusts  the  person  who  is  the 
author  or  cause  of  them.  "  Dost  thou  beUeve  on  the  Son  of  God?"  said 
Jesus  to  the  man  who  was  born  blind.  He  answered  and  said:  "  And  who 
is  He,  Lord,  that  I  may  beheve  on  Him  ?  "  Jesus  said  unto  him  :  "  Thou 
hast  both  seen  Him  and  He  it  is  that  speaketh  with  thee  ".  And  he  said : 
"  Lord,  I  believe  "  (John  9  :  35-38).  Seeing,  hearing,  believing  and  worship- 
ping are  the  steps  here  set  forth.  This  expresses  both  God's  and  man's 
idea  of  faith.  God  requires  trust  in  Himself.  Man  says,  who  art  Thou, 
Lord,  that  I  may  trust  Thee.  I  must  see  and  know  before  I  can  believe. 
John's  Gospel  is  especially  emphatic  in  this  personal  aspect  of  faith  as  a 
living  relation  between  man  and  God.  Faith  is  not  so  much  belief  in  truths, 
or  promises,  or  gospels  as  it  is  primarily  and  basally  trust  in  Jesus  Christ. 

This  is  also  the  fundamental  Pauline  conception,  that  faith  is  the  warm, 
living,  passionate,  personal  adhesion  to  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  said  "  to  be 
saved  through  faith",  "to  be  justified  by  faith",  "to  be  joined  to  Christ 
by  faith  ",  "  to  be  preserved  by  faith  ",  "  to  overcome  through  faith  ",  but  all 
these  imply  a  close  personal  relation  to  Christ.  All  these  things  will  become 
actualities  of  experience  through  the  power  of  Christ  whom  we  trust. 

We  must  now  attend  to  a  still  closer  analysis  of  faith. 

{a)  An  intellectual  perception  of  God  is  not  faith.  It  may  lead  to  a 
belief  in  His  reality.  "  The  demons  also  believe,  and  shudder  "  (James  2  :  19). 
This  perception  does  not  differ  essentially  from  any  perception  of  reality. 
There  is  no  necessary  moral  quality  in  the  intellectual  perception  of  God, 
even  though  it  includes  the  moral  character  of  God.  The  soul  might  perceive 
His  moral  excellence  and  yet  be  hostile  to  Him.  All  that  such  a  perception 
does  is  to  affirm  the  reality  of  God,  and  this  is  the  necessary  preliminary  to 
either  faith  or  hatred  toward  God. 

(J?)  Faith  is  both  a  perception  of  God  as  a  reality  and  an  acceptance 
of  and  willing  submission  to  Him  as  our  rightful  sovereign.  Faith  on  the 
one  side  is  knowledge,  and  on  the  other  is  the  hearty  moral  allegiance  of  the 
soul  to  God.  Hence  it  is  not  a  blind  act  of  the  soul.  It  involves  the  highest 
and  clearest  intelligence.  It  is  a  supreme  act  of  both  the  intellectual  and 
moral  reason,  plus  a  holy  choice  of  the  heart. 

Hence  faith  is  inseparably  interwoven  with  repentance  and  love  in  the 
beginnings  of  the  new  life. 

{c)     It  will  be  asked  how  does  faith  on  its  intellectual  side  perceive  God. 

I  answer  (a)  objectively  through  the  Gospels,  and  {b)  subjectively 
through  our  natures  made  in  the  likeness  of  God.  These  are  separable  in 
thought  for  purposes  of  analysis,  but  they  are  not  separable  in  fact.  They 
are  mutually  corrective  and  corroborative.  Hence  faith  rests  on  the  highest 
rationality,  on  its  intellectual  side,  and  on  the  right  exercise  of  the  moral 
nature,  on  its  moral  side.  It  is  right  knowledge  plus  right  action  based 
upon  it. 

"  He  that  believeth  hath  eternal  life  "  (John  6  :47). 

"  That  every  one  that  beholdeth  the  Son  and  believeth  on  Him  should 
have  eternal  life  "  (John  6  :  40). 


FAITH  IN  CHRIST.  143 

The  Christian  man  beholds  Christ,  and  beholding  believes,  and  believing 
is  in  possession  of  eternal  life.  One  cannot  say  that  a  man  has  faith  in 
Christ  and  then  obtains  eternal  life.  Faith  in  Christ  and  possession  of 
eternal  life  are  coincident  in  their  beginnings.  There  could  not  be  faith 
without  the  possession  of  eternal  life  out  of  which  faith  springs,  and  there 
could  not  be  eternal  life  without  faith  as  the  expression  of  it.  They  start 
together.  They  abide  together.  They  are  parts  of  one  whole.  It  is  as 
useless  to  ask  if  a  man  could  be  saved  without  personal  faith  in  Christ, 
or  if  he  could  exercise  faith  without  being  saved,  as  it  is  to  ask  if  one  half  of 
an  apple  is  not  the  whole  apple.  How  explicit  is  John's  declaration,  "  He 
that  believeth  hath  eternal  life"  (John  6:47).  And  he  might  have  said 
with  equal  truth,  he  that  hath  eternal  life  believeth. 

Faith,  then,  begins  at  the  point  of  union  between  the  soul  and  its 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  The  faith  life  is  the  beginning  of  the  Christ  life  in 
us,  and  the  Christ  life  in  us  is  the  beginning  of  the  faith  life.  They  are  at 
the  source  of  all  Christian  living,  and  inasmuch  as  the  Christian  life  is  a 
work  of  God,  we  may  say,  in  a  general  w^ay,  that  faith  is  among  the  sources 
of  it. 

But  if  I  were  to  define  more  exactly  and  discriminatingly  my  own  con- 
ception, I  should  say  that  it  is  not  faith  which  is  the  spring  of  religious 
action,  but  it  is  the  new,  regenerate  nature,  begotten  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  is  the  spring  of  it.  Faith  is  neither  the  cause,  nor  the  source,  nor 
the  origin  of  that  new  nature,  and  hence  is  not  the  spring  of  religious  action 
or  religious  fruits.  The  new  nature,  the  new  life,  of  which  faith  in  Christ 
is  the  constant  and  true  expression,  is  the  spring  of  all  holy  desire,  and  of 
all  holy  action.  In  a  word,  I  should  make  the  new  nature  wrought  in  us 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  the  spring  of  all  right  action.  Faith  is  the  continual 
affirmation  of  the  soul  that  it  is  Christ  who  is  its  life,  and  that  it  forever 
enbraces  and  appropriates  Him  as  the  very  essence  of  that  new  life.  It  is 
the  soul's  perpetual  acceptance  of  Christ.  It  is  the  soul's  perpetual  and 
fixed  looking  on  C:hrist  as  its  Saviour  and  Lord,  and,  on  the  ground  of  what 
it  sees  in  Him,  its  intelligent  and  eager  union  in  His  life. 

Faith,  then,  is  one  act  in  three  parts.—  i.  The  intelligent  perception  of 
Christ  as  He  is.  2.  The  flinging  of  one's  self  into  the  current  of  His  life, 
so  that,  by  our  own  free  choice,  hereafter  our  life  flows  on  in  His  life  and 
His  life  in  our  life.  3.  The  willing  and  joyous  reception  of  Christ  into 
our  life  in  order  that  He  may  be  our  justification  and  our  sanctification.  It 
involves  an  emptying  of  self,  of  all  self  help,  and  of  all  self  righteousness, 
and  a  receptive  activity  which  appropriates  Christ  to  itself.  This  phase  of 
faith  might  be  called  a  free  and  rational  passivity  of  the  soul  for  the  receiv- 
ing of  Christ,  and  for  the  putting  at  His  disposal  all  our  being,  powers, 
purposes  and  possessions,  so  that  He  may,  without  hindrance  from  us,  shape 
and  fashion  us  after  "  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will  ".  All  this  we  call  trust, 
or  faith.     Again  I  affirm  that  evangelical  faith  is  intensely  personal. 

The  secondary  results  are,  of  course,  our  confidence  or  faith  that  this 
divine  person  will  do  for  us  what  is  best,  that  He  will  providentially  direct 


144  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

and  overrule  our  lives,  that  He  will  provide  daily  bread,  strength,  wisdom 
and  grace.  But  true  faith  does  not  fix  its  attention  primarily  on  bread,  or 
goods,  or  things,  but  wholly  on  Christ. 

And  now,  having  defined  what  faith  is,  I  may  say  that  really  it  is  the 
new  nature  which  is  the  spring  of  true  religious  action,  as  it  is  also  the 
ground  from  which  grow  true  religious  fruits.  What  part,  then,  does  faith 
have  ?  This,  and  this  only,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  the  soul  by  its  free 
and  voluntary  act  having  perceived  and  embraced  Jesus  Christ,  now  desires 
to  do  what  will  please  Him.  It  seeks  to  conform  itself  to  His  mind  and 
will.  It  tries  to  make  its  plans,  purposes  and  goals  coincident  with  His.  It 
not  merely  offers  a  passive  submission  of  itself  to  Christ,  but  also  at  once 
moves  forward,  actively  and  eagerly,  into  all  the  Christ  activities,  the  Christ 
plans  for  the  world,  and  the  supreme  Christ  goals.  It  is  so  completely 
identified  with  Christ  that  it  seeks  to  become  itself  a  Saviour  of  the  world 
in  company  with  the  Christ  who  is  the  supreme  Saviour. 

As  in  the  case  of  Thomas,  first  the  veil  of  doubt  drops  from  his  eyes 
and  he  sees  clearly  Jesus,  his  glorious  and  radiant  Lord,  and  then,  in  the 
same  instant,  he  flings,  as  it  were,  the  arms  of  his  love  in  a  passionate 
embrace  of  possession  around  Him,  as  he  cries  aloud,  "  My  Lord  and  my 
God  ".  This  is  faith,  eager,  passionate,  personal.  It  is  John's  Gospel  only 
which  records  this  incident.  The  reason  is  easy  to  find.  It  is  coincident 
with  John's  own  conception  of  faith.  He  is  always  lying  on  Jesus'  bosom, 
looking  up  into  Jesus'  face,  hearing  Jesus'  words,  watching  Jesus'  works, 
seeing  the  infinite  reach  of  Jesus'  love,  conscious  of  the  almightiness  of 
Jesus'  care,  feeling  the  evercleansing  flow  of  Jesus'  blood,  and  possessing  an 
ever  present  and  vivid  sense  of  Jesus'  presence. 

In  the  perpetual  knowledge  and  realization  of  all  this,  he  is  at  the  same 
time,  on  his  part,  voluntarily  and  eagerly  joining  himself,  in  an  act  perpet- 
ually renewed,  to  Jesus  Christ  as  his  only  Lord  and  Saviour.  This  is  John's 
idea  of  faith,  "  the  faith  which  overcometh  the  world  ". 


*  JESUS  THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE. 

(St.  John  6  :  30-59.) 

by  rev.  cornelius  avoei^itkin, 

Pastor  of  the  Greene  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

"  I  am  the  bread  of  life  ".  The  analogues  of  Jesus  were  based  upon 
things  most  familiar  to  the  minds  of  the  peasantry  of  Palestine.  By  them 
He  articulated  spiritual  truths  with  human  apprehensions.  The  staple  food 
of  the  daily  life  was  bread.  Accessorial  luxuries  might  be  unknown,  but 
bread  was  a  necessity.  Jesus  likens  Himself  to  this  familiar  diet,  found  in 
every  home.  "  I  am  the  bread  of  life  *  *  *  if  any  man  eat  of  this 
bread,  he  shall  live  forever  ".  It  seems  so  artless  that  the  running  racer 
may  read  it.  Its  meaning  lies  so  near  the  surface  that  the  illiterate  may 
interpret  it.  And  yet  many  that  heard  it  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  stumbled  at 
the  saying.  They  gathered  about  Him  in  the  hope  of  being  fed  whh 
bread  from  His  wonder-working  hands.  He  directs  their  minds  from  the 
physical  to  the  spiritual  bread.  Their  interest  is  aroused,  their  desires 
quickened.  Their  apprehensions  grow  clear  and  cloudy.  Their  emotions 
flow  and  ebb  like  the  tides.  To  their  hardened  hearts  and  opaque  minds 
the  simple  utterance  became  an  hard  saying.  To  them  the  bread  became 
indigestible  stone — "who  can  receive  it?"  A  great  defection  took  place 
among  them,  and  "  many  of  His  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more 
with  Him  ".  Even  the  twelve  must  have  been  perplexed  and  tempted  to 
join  the  secession. 

This  revolutionary  discourse  upon  "  the  bread  of  life"  was  the  issue  of 
a  wonder-work  wrought  by  Jesus  on  the  yesterday.  It  was  the  passover 
season.  All  Israel  should  have  been  feasting;  but  many  were  distressed 
with  hunger.  Five  little  barley  cakes  and  two  small  fishes — what  were 
these  among  the  multitude?  Multiplied  by  the  yearning  sympathy  and 
compassion  of  Jesus,  they  increase  sufificiently  to  satisfy  all,  with  a  bulk  of 
fragments  left  greater  than  the  capital  with  which  He  began.  The  people 
saw  in  this  a  sign,  but  alas  for  them,  it  pointed  in  the  wrong  direction.  He 
met  them  on  the  plane  of  their  temporal  need.  They  are  content  to  abide 
there  and  would  proclaim  Him  king  if  He  will  continue  with  them.  Their 
spirit  differed  nothing  from  the  Roman  plebeian  throng  who  cried  "Ave 
Caesar  ",  so  long  as  they  had  the  gratuity  of  corn  to  eat.  A  Jewish  Ca;sar 
to  fight  their  battles  and  supply  their  temporal  wants  is  all  they  ask.  They 
would  take  Him  by  force  and  make  Him  king — a  bread  king. 

The  wonder-works  of  Jesus  were  not  wrought  to  encourage  them  to 
believe  that  His  power  might  be  harnessed  to  the  temporal  life  with  all  its 


♦Delivered  at  the  Third  Conference,  held  at  the  Ueneficent  Congregational  Church,  December  9,  1903. 


146  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

burden,  strain  and  necessity.  He  had  not  come  to  ameliorate  temporal  con- 
ditions and  make  the  life  that  now  is,  comfortable,  easy  and  satisfying. 
His  mission  in  life  was  not  to  supplement  the  daily  waste  of  the  mortal  life, 
but  to  bring  humanity  into  the  inheritance  of  incorruptible  life.  Therefore 
He  denies  Himself  to  mere  social  reform.  He  was  the  visitant  who  came 
from  above,  testifying  of  the  things  which  He  had  heard  and  seen.  He 
came  from  God — an  ambassador  to  speak  the  word  of  God.  He  was  the 
light  of  life,  the  spirit  of  life,  the  witness  of  life,  the  way  of  life.  He  would 
not  be  a  bread  king.  He  would  be  the  bread  of  life,  the  life  eternal.  All 
His  wonder-works  were  signs  hung  out  amid  things  seen,  to  be  advertise- 
ments of  spiritual  things  unseen.  They  were  index  fingers  pointing  to  a  life 
beyond  the  temporal  horizon.  They  were  echoes  from  a  higher  realm ; 
embroideries  on  the  veil  of  nature,  behind  which  dwelt  the  mysterious  pres- 
ence and  power  of  God.  They  were  designed  to  arrest  attention  and  arouse 
interest.  They  were  the  termifiiis  a  quo  by  which  souls  might  get  on  the 
bridge  of  faith,  and  pass  into  the  life  which  is  life  indeed.  Such  was  the 
design  of  the  feeding  of  the  multitude.  When  the  people  came  the  next 
day,  their  very  coming  was  latent  with  the  cry,  "Give  us  bread  to  eat". 
His  answer  to  this  cry  was  to  turn  their  minds  from  the  advertisement  to 
the  thing  advertised.  The  bread  which  they  had  eaten  in  such  abundance 
was  a  sign  of  the  bread  which  nourishes  the  life  eternal,  that  bread  which 
satisfies  the  deepest  appetite  in  the  human  soul — a  heart-hunger  for  God. 

"  I  am  the  bread  of  life  ".  By  the  introduction  of  this  analogy,  Jesus 
tells  us  that  physiology  has  its  companion  law  in  the  spiritual  world.  The 
two  run  parallel.  Every  observance  in  the  natural  and  seen  should  read  us 
lessons  concerning  the  spiritual  and  unseen.  By  means  of  Christ's  ana- 
logues we  have  the  power  of  changing  the  focus  of  our  vision.  Instead  of 
looking  at  the  things  seen,  we  use  them  as  a  lense  through  which  we  behold 
the  unseen  and  eternal. 

The  zones  of  theology  and  biology  lie  next  to  one  another.  Not  only 
do  they  touch,  but  the  line  of  demarcation  which  has  hitherto  indicated 
their  boundaries  is  becoming  fainter.  We  begin  to  suspect  that  they  are 
upper  and  lower  sides  of  one  truth.  Both  theology  and  biology  affirm 
specialization  in  the  several  forms  of  life  with  which  they  have  to  do.  They 
employ  different  terms  to  designate  the  vital  principle  that  lies  behind  the 
specialization  of  life-forms.  But  the  several  principles,  if  not  the  terms,  are 
synonymous. 

Election  is  a  theological  term.  Coming  from  the  higher  world,  it  seems 
to  wear  the  form  of  divine  arbitrariness.  Some  minds  have  conceived  the 
doctrine  of  election  as  the  only  foundation  upon  which  to  build  an  assur- 
ance of  the  hope  of  eternal  life.  Others  have  repudiated  it  as  a  caricature 
of  the  method  of  God.  Men  have  fought  both  for  and  against  it.  Wesley 
scorned  the  very  thought  of  this  doctrine,  saying  to  Whitfield,  "  Your  god  is 
my  devil".  On  the  other  hand,  Froude,  speaking  from  the  historian's 
standpoint,  not  the  theologian's,  says  :  "  If  Galvanism  is  indeed  the  hard  and 
unreasonable  creed  which  modern  enlightenment  declares  it  to  be,  why  has 


/ESUS  THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE.  147 

it  possessed  such  singular  attractions  in  times  past  for  some  of  the  greatest 
men  that  ever  lived :  if  it  be  a  creed  of  intellectual  servitude,  why  was  it  able 
to  inspire  and  sustain  the  bravest  efforts  ever  made  by  man  to  break  the 
yoke  of  unjust  authority  ?  "  We  may  have  a  duty  to  brush  away  the  dust  of 
misconception  that  has  accrued  upon  this  doctrine.  But  the  term  stands 
for  a  great  vital  principle,  and  is  justified  in  remaining  in  the  nomenclature 
of  the  science  of  spiritual  biology. 

Biology  employs  another  term — selection.  This  term  comes  from  a  lower 
plane,  plumed  with  the  prestige  of  modern  scholarship.  But  it  has  only  aug- 
mented the  theological  term  by  the  prefix  of  a  consonant.  Natural  selection 
and  spiritual  election  are  synonymous  terms  in  the  study  of  lower  and  higher 
biology.  They  both  stand  for  forces  that  crystallize  in  specialized  forms  of 
life.  Biology  predicates  structural  changes.  Features  once  prominent  disap- 
pear, and  potentialities  once  latent  are  prominently  developed.  By  such  struc- 
tural modification  life  survived  the  changes  of  environment  and  moved  toward 
more  complex  and  higher  forms  of  existence.  Theology  predicates  that  flesh 
and  blood  cannot  enter  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Changes  are  coming.  The  nat- 
ural cannot  abide.  That  is  first  which  is  natural,  and  afterward  that  which  is 
spiritual.  The  natural  is  the  seed-plot  for  the  spiritual.  By  spiritual  birth 
and  spiritual  growth  w^e  lose  the  features  of  carnality  and  develop  the  poten- 
tialities of  spirituality.  Ultimately  God  must  be  all  and  in  all.  God  is  a  spirit, 
and  they  who  would  survive  must  become  one  wdth  Him  in  spirit.  He  that 
is  joined  to  the  Lord  is  one  spirit.  This  survival  is  on  the  principle  termed 
election.  The  election  of  theology  is  the  selection  of  biology  carried  up  to 
the  highest  known  zone  of  specialized  life.  Natural  selection  is  the  whole 
creation  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain,  with  outstretched  neck  straining  to 
greet  the  time  when  life  shall  emerge  from  the  bondage  of  corruption. 
Spiritual  election  is  the  spirit  of  God  brooding  over  the  human  soul,  seeking 
to  bring  forth  a  life  in  the  spirit  and  likeness  of  the  Son  of  God.  Theology 
and  biology  stand  and  behold  the  Christ  of  God.  If  man  is  the  end  of 
biology,  then  behold  the  man  in  whom  the  fulness  of  God  dwells.  If  God  is 
the  end  of  theology,  then  behold  God  manifested  in  the  flesh.  The  one  must 
be  satisfied  that  His  life  is  the  light  of  men,  while  the  other  follows  Him  as 
the  Lamb  of  God  who  leadeth  into  the  pastures  and  beside  the  waters  of  the 
life  everlasting.  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life.  Both  will  join  in  say- 
ing, "  I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  with  Thy  likeness  ". 

The  central  theme  in  the  Gospel  of  John  is  that  specialized  life  known 
as  eternal  life  and  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ.  Eternal  is  the  term  describ- 
ing its  quality,  and,  therefore,  becomes  one  of  the  cardinal  words  of  this 
Gospel.  Of  this  life  certain  predicates  are  affirmed.  Its  source  and  centre 
is  God.  Its  manifestation  and  channel  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  Its  inheritance 
is  through  the  process  of  a  spiritual  birth.  Its  environment  is  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  Its  nature,  type,  law,  purpose,  and  glory  are  all  seen  in  the  incar- 
nate, crucified,  and  risen  Son  of  God.  In  the  passage  under  consideration 
we  are  taught  concerning  the  meat  upon  which  this  eternal  life  must  depend 
for  nurture  and  growth. 


148  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Every  form  of  organic  life  is  supported  by  something  external  to  itself. 
Every  peculiar  type  of  life  has  its  appointed  supply  whereby  to  maintain  its 
existence  and  development.  Man  has  a  threefold  life.  On  the  lowest  plane 
he  has  a  material  body,  in  common  with  animals.  On  the  highest  plane  he 
has  a  spirit,  in  the  similitude  of  God.  On  the  mediate  plane  he  has  a 
rational  soul,  the  nexus  between  spirit  and  body.  The  body  is  fed  with 
chemical  nutriment ;  the  mind  with  thought ;  the  spirit  with  God.  Each  inay 
be  imposed  upon  by  deleterious  supplies.  The  physical  prodigal  may  leave 
the  father's  table  with  its  wholesome  bread,  and  feed  on  the  pods  from  the 
swinetrough  of  gross  sensual  indulgence.  The  soul  may  leave  the  banquet 
of  truth  and  snuff  up  the  fever-breeding  air  of  pride,  envy,  covetousness, 
authority,  and  vain  glory.  The  spirit  may  be  denied  the  vital  tonic  of  holy 
meditation  upon  God.  But  when  each  several  phase  of  life  receives  its 
appointed  meat  in  due  season,  the  tendency  is  toward  health,  comfort,  and 
satisfaction. 

But  meat  suited  for  one  life  cannot  be  substituted  for  another.  When 
the  rich  farmer  sought  to  feed  his  soul  on  the  corn  that  overflowed  his 
barns  he  became  a  fool  and  died.  If  the  modern  Christian  Scientist  (falsely 
so-called)  were  to  try  the  trick  of  feeding  that  figment  of  the  imagination, 
the  body,  on  thought,  his  obituary  would  soon  be  written  under  the  caption, 
"  Thou  fool,  this  day  shall  thy  body  be  required  of  thee  ".  Likewise  the 
spiritual  life,  the  life  eternal,  cannot  be  supported  except  it  feed  upon  God, 
the  Lord,  the  Spirit. 

The  Old  Testament  saints  experienced  this  heart-craving.  Out  of  the 
Psalms  there  comes  to  us  the  cry,  "  My  soul  thirsteth  for  Thee,  my  flesh 
longeth  for  Thee  in  a  dry  and  thirsty  land  where  no  water  is.  *  *  *  As 
the  heart  panteth  and  brayeth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul 
after  Thee,  O  God.  My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living  God  ".  Nor 
did  they  cry  in  vain.  They  praised  the  Lord,  saying,  "  He  hath  set  a  table 
before  me  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy.  *  *  *  Man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God. 
*  *  *  I  have  treasured  up  the  words  of  His  mouth  more  than  my  neces- 
sary food  ".  Throughout  the  olden  days  God  spake  unto  the  fathers  in  the 
prophets.  Their  faith  fed  upon  God  through  every  medium  of  revelation — 
prophecy  and  providence,  sacrifice  and  sacrament  were  tables  where  the 
spirits  of  just  men  fed  upon  God.  But  He  hath  in  these  last  days  spoken 
to  us  in  a  Son.  In  Him  the  abstractions  of  spiritual  truth,  which  satisfied 
the  heart  hunger  of  former  days,  are  made  concrete.  He  is  the  bread  of 
life  whereof  if  a  man  eat  he  shall  be  satisfied. 

There  is  a  fourfold  statement  here  concerning  the  bread  of  life.  Each 
statement  supplies  some  additional  detail  to  the  former,  and  each  one  is 
made  emphatic  by  a  double  amen.  The  first  statement  advertises  the 
existence  of  the  meat  which  abideth  unto  life  eternal.  The  second  statement 
brings  it  to  view,  saying,  "I  am  the  bread  of  life".  The  third  statement 
informs  us  that  this  bread  is  His  flesh  which  He  will  give  for  the  life  of  the 
world.  The  last  statement  emphasizes  the  necessity  of  our  assimilating 
Christ  by  the  eating  of  this  bread. 


/ESUS  THE  BREAD  OE  LIFE.  149 

I.  Work  not  for  the  meat  that  perisheth,  but  for  the  meat  which  abideth 
unto  eternal  life.  There  is  a  certain  work  necessary  for  the  obtainment  of 
our  daily  bread.  But  this  labor  may  fall  into  a  false  emphasis.  It  may 
become  burdened  with  undue  anxiety  and  be  made  the  pivot  of  carnal  care. 
Against  this  fretting  anxiety  Jesus  specially  warns  us.  Yet  if  the  daily  bread 
came  easily,  man  would  be  continually  beset  with  the  temptation  to  spend 
his  best  energies  in  self-indulgence,  and  rest  satisfied  with  the  carnal  pleasures 
of  his  temporal  life.  Therefore  the  necessary  work  is  not  an  accident  but  a 
divine  appointment.  Responsibility  calls  up  the  latent  good  in  human  life. 
Necessity  sets  to  work  the  functions  of  brain  and  heart.  Manual  labor  is 
the  outward  scaffolding ;  within  is  the  structure  of  soul  and  spirit.  Hence 
the  daily  meal  represents  a  greater  value  than  can  be  computed  into  dollars 
and  cents.  There  is  an  undefined  plus  there.  To  this  higher  self  man  owes 
his  chief  duty.  All  other  responsibilities  focus  there-  Its  hunger  cannot 
be  satisfied  with  the  labor  of  hands  or  the  genius  of  mind.  It  must  have  a 
spiritual  meat,  which  meat  is  given  us  by  the  Son  of  man.  Our  Father's 
provision  for  spiritual  life  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Him  hath  he  sealed  ;  and  the 
only  labor  on  our  part  to  obtain  Him  is  a  spiritual  work — the  work  of  faith. 
"This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  Him  whom  He  hath  sent". 

II.  Christ  is  this  bread  of  life.  First  He  quickens  the  spiritual  life  and 
then  maintains  it.  Bread  is  a  very  significant  analogue.  The  loaf  that  comes 
upon  our  table  is  the  sacrifice  of  the  summer  harvest.  The  grain  grows  in 
the  summer's  glory,  drinking  in  sunshine  and  shower.  It  moves  like  waves 
of  the  sea  under  the  blow  of  the  August  breezes.  Then  the  hour  of  sacrifice 
comes.  The  harvester's  scythe  cuts  it  down  and  cradles  it.  The  thresher's 
flail  smites  it  again  and  again.  Then  it  is  ground  many  times  in  the  mills 
to  become  the  finest  of  wheat.  Kneaded  and  baked  it  comes  at  last  to  us  in 
the  form  of  bread.  Simple  as  it  seems  there  is  in  it  nutriment  to  supply  the 
fuel  of  life.  It  repairs  the  waste  of  bone,  muscle  and  nerve  ;  it  supplies  the 
energy  that  works  in  heart,  brain  and  all  organs.  The  body  needs  many 
building  materials — oxygen,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  carbon,  iron,  lime,  soda, 
phosphorus,  chondrin,  osmazome,  cholesterine,  and  resin.  What  a  perplex- 
ing multiplicity !  But  they  are  all  in  the  bread  that  supports  physical  life. 
"  I  am  the  bread  of  life  ".  The  meat  of  our  spiritual  nature  is  concrete  in 
His  personality.  In  Him  is  life.  His  life  becomes  the  sacrificial  bread  of 
the  soul.  Equal  with  God  in  the  eternal  glory  He  becomes  incarnate, 
emptying  Himself  of  that  native  majesty.  A  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief.  He  is  threshed  on  the  floor  of  human  sorrow  and  woe.  On  the 
cross  He  is  ground  in  the  mills  of  God's  mystery.  Risen  from  the  dead  and 
exalted  to  be  a  prince  and  Saviour,  He  is  the  bread  of  life.  How  many 
characteristics  are  necessary  to  make  our  character  godlike  ?  We  do  not  know. 
There  must  be  love,  humility,  submission,  patience,  hope,  gentleness,  joy, 
and  all  the  qualities  that  entered  to  compose  the  character  of  the  Son  of  God. 
In  Him  all  our  need  is  supplied  according  to  His  riches  in  glory.  In  Him 
are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  In  Him  dwelleth  the 
fulness  of  the  godhead  bodily.     And  of  His  fulness  have  we  all  received 


ISO  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

and  grace  for  grace.  As  we  partake  of  Him,  the  soul  gets  out  of  Him  the 
redemption  of  the  daily  waste  and  the  increment  of  the  energy  of  the  life  of 
God.  We  may  not  explain  how  it  takes  place,  but  we  know  from  experience, 
that  as  we  meditate  upon  the  beauty  and  perfection  of  the  character  of  our 
Lord,  and  as  we  pray  that  we  may  be  transformed  into  His  likeness,  some- 
how our  spiritual  nature  takes  in  the  Christ  spirit,  and  all  the  attributes  of 
His  character  transfigure  themselves  through  our  lives  and  conduct, 

ni.  "  I  am  the  living  bread,  and  the  bread  which  I  will  give  is  My 
flesh".  That  is  to  say,  the  bread  which  He  gives  us  is  life,  for  He  came  to 
minister  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many.  But  it  is  His  life  manifested 
in  the  flesh, — His  life  as  we  have  it  from  the  incarnation  to  the  rending  of 
the  veil  of  His  flesh  on  the  cross.  Mere  literalism  of  interpretation  is  a 
snare  here.  In  missing  the  figurative  factor,  Nicodemus  asked:  "  How  can 
these  things  be".  The  Samaritan  woman  asked:  "How  He  could  give 
water  having  nothing  to  draw  with  ".  The  Jews  asked :  ''  How  can  He  give 
us  His  flesh  to  eat ".  To  them  it  would  suggest  cannibalism.  Here  is  one 
of  the  cardinal  errors  of  the  Romish  mass.  They  literalize  this  scripture  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  actual  presence.  If  it  were  true,  it  would  avail  nothing. 
Physically,  the  chemical  properties  composing  the  body  of  Jesus  were  no 
different  from  those  that  make  up  our  own.  It  needed  the  supply  of  food  to 
supply  the  daily  waste,  and  increase  it  to  the  stature  of  manhood.  It  suc- 
cumbed to  the  mortal  injuries  inflicted  on  the  cross.  To  eat  thereof  would 
no  more  beget  eternal  life  than  could  the  heavenly  manna  confer  a  life 
immortal. 

Verse  sixty-three  supplies  the  interpreting  factor.  "  It  is  the  spirit  that 
quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing.  The  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto 
you,  they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life  ".  Literally  a  word  is  but  a  sound 
in  the  air  or  a  combination  of  letters  made  with  ink  upon  paper.  The 
ear  may  hear  the  one  or  the  eye  see  the  other,  and  both  remain  mean- 
ingless. It  requires  a  discerning  spirit  to  read  the  meaning  of  words. 
Christ  Jesus  was  the  word  of  God  written  in  the  character  of  the  flesh.  He 
could  be  seen  and  heard  and  yet  misunderstood.  The  Pharisees  saw  His 
works  and  heard  His  words  and  said  "He  hath  a  devil".  The  disciples 
witnessed  the  same  life  and  works  and  said  :  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God  ".  How  did  they  know  ?  Jesus  said  :  "  Blessed  art  thou, 
flesh  and  blood  (not  even  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Jesus)  hath  not  revealed  it 
to  thee  but  My  Father  in  heaven  ".  Yet  the  revelation  was  through  the  word 
made  flesh.  They  had  the  spiritual  discernment  to  understand  the  meaning 
in  the  word.  Physicians  often  write  prescriptions  for  tonics  to  our  systems. 
In  so  doing  the  bulk  of  the  dose  taken  has  no  medicinal  value.  The  stimu- 
lating ingredients  are  written  in  drams  and  grains.  The  balance  is  written 
in  ounces.  The  latter  are  not  designed  to  play  an  active  part.  They  are 
the  vehicle  which  carry  the  other  ingredients  that  could  not  be  taken  without 
it.  The  flesh  of  the  Son  of  God  is  the  vehicle  by  which  the  life  of  God 
comes  to  us,  and  in  whom  we  may  receive  it. 

There  are  eternal  idealities  and  realities  in  God  that  constitute  life. 


JESUS  THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE.  1 5 1 

Christ  is  the  embodiment  of  these.  By  His  incarnation  and  all  its  sequences 
these  became  articulated  to  our  conception  and  reception.  He  is  the  ver- 
nacular of  God  speaking  the  life  of  God  to  our  souls. 

Christ  is  the  radiance  of  the  glory  of  the  invisible  God.  He  is  the  sun- 
beam who  brmgs  us  the  God  of  light.  The  sunbeam  seems  a  very  simple 
affair,  a  single  thread  of  yellow  light.  A  triangular  piece  of  common  glass 
will  serve  to  unwind  this  thread  and  reveal  the  prismatic  colors.  A  perfect 
spectroscope  serves  to  show  us  not  seven  rays  in  the  sunbeam,  but  innumera- 
ble rays,  each  having  a  distinct  property,  contributing  to  the  life  of  the  world. 
The  tlesh  of  Jesus  is  a  spiritual  spectroscope.  It  is  a  simple  matter  to  say 
"  God  is  love".  But  not  until  that  love  is  unwound  through  the  incarnation 
and  crucifixion  of  the  Christ  of  God  do  we  really  know  what  it  is.  In  that 
love  is  the  will  of  God,  the  patience  of  God,  the  holiness  of  God,  the  justice 
of  God,  the  power  of  God,  etc.,  etc.  So  when  we  feed  on  the  love  of  God, 
made  over  to  us  in  the  gift  of  His  Son  we  have  "  The  living  bread  which 
cometh  down  out  of  heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof  and  not  die  ".  "  This 
is  my  body  which  is  broken  for  you  ".  It  is  the  corn  of  wheat  which  falls  into 
the  ground  and  dies,  that  its  life  may  be  made  bread  for  us.  It  is  the  rending 
of  the  veil  that  the  mysterious  presence  and  fulness  of  God  may  be  opened 
to  us.  It  is  the  breaking  of  the  alabaster  box,  that  the  ointment  of  life  may 
flow  out  and  the  fragrance  of  divine  love  fill  the  universe.  The  incarnation 
is  the  embodiment  of  God's  will.  The  crucifixion  is  the  overflow  of  His 
love.  To  feed  on  God's  will  is  meat  indeed,  and  to  drink  of  His  love  at  the 
cross  is  drink  indeed. 

IV.  "  He  that  eateth  My  flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood,  abideth  in  Me 
and  I  in  him  ".  Spiritual  assimilation  is  necessary.  The  life  of  Jesus  is  an 
illustration.  "  As  the  living  Father  sent  Me  and  I  live  because  of  the 
Father  ".  The  wisdom  and  power  of  Jesus  were  perplexing  problems  to  His 
adversaries.  Whence  hath  this  man  this  wisdom  and  these  mighty  works  ? 
They  looked  to  the  schools,  but  His  name  was  not  on  the  matriculation  list. 
They  knew  the  carpenter  shop,  but  no  fountain  of  power  sprang  there.  "  I 
live  by  the  Father  "  ;  here  He  discovers  to  us  the  secret.  "  The  Father  loveth 
the  Son  ".  That  was  the  table  at  which  He  fed  daily.  If  we  would  know 
whence  Jesus  had  that  poise  of  life  in  which  blended  peace,  patience,  com- 
passion, joy  and  hope,  He  fed  on  the  love  of  God.  "The  Father  showeth 
Him  all  things  that  He  Himself  doeth  ".  The  Father  was  the  secret  of  His 
power.  He  could  from  Himself  do  nothing.  He  studied  the  will  of  God 
and  acted  in  the  obedience  of  faith.  He  said  :  "  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will 
of  Him  that  sent  Me  and  to  finish  His  work".  That  will  w-as  made  complete 
on  the  cross.  "  Therefore  doth  My  Father  love  Me,  because  I  lay  down  My 
life".  Here  then  was  the  secret  of  His  life  and  work.  "  I  am  come  down 
from  heaven,  not  to  do  My  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  and 
this  is  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  that  all  that  which  He  hath  given  Me, 
I  should  lose  nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  at  the  last  day  ".  By  meditation 
and  obedience  He  assimilated  the  love  and  will  of  God.  Fven  so  must  we 
live  toward  Him  as  He  did  toward  God. 


152  THE  GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHN. 

This  analogue  of  "  Christ  the  bread  of  life ",  is  suggestive  in  many 
directions.  Irregularity  in  the  daily  fellowship  and  appropriations  can  not 
obtain  the  best  experiences  and  results.  Special  diet  may  be  necessary  by 
meditation  on  specific  attributes  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  for  the  reproduction  of 
the  same  characteristics  in  our  own  lives.  Failure  to  expend  the  vitality 
gained  by  meditation  will  clog  and  dry  in  the  soul  as  a  like  process  obtains 
in  the  body.  Unassimilated  truth  will  cause  distress  akin  to  dyspepsia. 
Many  cannot  bear  the  meat  diet  at  all  and  must  be  fed  on  milk,  and  malted 
milk  at  that.  But  to  the  soul  that  has  the  conscientious  desire  to  grow  in 
spirit,  there  is  ample  provision  in  Christ  the  bread.  To  believe  on  Him  is 
initial  faith.  To  receive  Him  is  appropriating  faith.  To  understand  Him 
is  intelligent  faith.  To  assimilate  Him  is  active  faith.  Like  all  life,  the 
spiritual  life  is  known  by  the  food  that  it  requires,  and  the  process  of  replace- 
ment and  transformed  energy  results  in  transfigured  character  bearing  the 
likeness  of  the  Son  of  God. 


•  THE  CONFESSION  OF   PETER— CHRIST  THE  WORLD'S  ONLY  HOPE 

AND  LIFE. 

(St.  John  6  :  68,  69.) 

by  rkv.  henry  s.  nash,  d.  d., 

Professor  of  New  Testament  Interprbtation  in  the  Episcopal  Theological 
School,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

"  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life  ".  I 
count  on  your  forgiveness,  if,  in  order  to  come  to  this  verse  along  the  right 
line  I  seem  to  repeat  what  may  have  been  said  in  the  course  of  the  day;  but 
it  is  impossible  to  enter  properly  into  any  great  verse  of  this  wonderful  book 
unless  you  carry  into  it  the  light  of  a  very  large  context. 

There  are  some  human  sayings  that  have  "  Greatness  thrust  upon  them", 
and  have  become  independent  of  their  context  in  order  to  be  made  great. 
Take  for  example  our  national  motto,  "  E  Pluribus  Unum  ",  which  was  a 
part  of  a  receipt  for  making  salad.  There  is  a  word  that  had  to  break  away 
from  its  context  and  history  to  have  greatness  thrust  upon  it.  Again,  you 
have  another  humorous  illustration  in  that  saying  from  Terence,  "  Nothing 
that  is  human  reckon  I  to  be  foreign  to  myself  ".  If  you  ever  carry  that  into 
its  context,  I  doubt  if  you  will  ever  use  it  again.  You  will  find  it  was  spoken 
by  a  Paul  Pry  who  was  speaking  through  a  keyhole  and  who  sought  to 
justify  himself  by  speaking  that  ringing  phrase. 

But  other  words  are  born  great,  and  such  words  must  be  taken  with 
their  climate.  It  is  impossible  to  find  one's  way  along  the  right  path  into 
any  one  of  these  deep  words  without  carrying  a  large  context  with  you.  I 
said  in  a  preceding  address  that  this  book  was  all  center.  The  problem  of 
its  authorship  is  an  exceedingly  difficult  one.  I  for  my  part  believe  that  the 
only  possible  explanation  of  the  primary  text  of  the  Gospel  is  that  it  was 
written,  as  the  tradition  says,  by  John  the  Apostle  in  his  old  age. 

Let  us  call  to  one's  aid  what  we  know  about  the  action  of  the  human 
memory  in  old  age.  We  all  know  how  memory  behaves.  If  any  of  us  are 
getting  towards  fifty  or  some  distance  beyond,  we  know  by  personal  experi- 
ence; more  and  more  the  intermediate  state  of  the  years  from  thirty 
or  thirty-four  drops  out,  and  as  we  go  into  ripening  years,  the  events  of 
youth  become  contemporary.  I  can  remember  with  more  precision  things 
which  happened  when  I  was  twelve  years  old  than  when  I  was  thirty-two ; 
and  I  expect  to  have  that  process  go  on,  and  if  I  live  to  be  seventy,  I  expect 
to  be  contemporary  with  "my  little  brother  ",  as  Stephenson  called  the  boy 
he  once  was. 


♦Delivered  at  the  Third  Conference,  held  at  the  F.ene4.cent  Congregational  Church,  December  9,  1903. 


154  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

We  must  add  to  this  trait  of  memory,  in  connection  with  the  authorship 
of  this  book,  the  fact  that  John  had  no  artificial  memory.  Our  memory  is 
for  the  most  part  a  memory  of  Ubraries ;  but  his  was  a  natural  one,  it  was  in 
his  head.  That  is  where  he  carried  all  his  history.  One  knows  how  a  man 
who  has  had  the  help  of  no  book  to  pin  him  down  to  accurate  quotations, 
and  to  precise  scientific  memories,  when  he  comes  to  look  back  out  of  his 
old  age  at  the  life  of  a  great  friend,  will  write  the  life  of  that  friend.  All  the 
accidental  things  will  have  dropped  out,  and  only  the  heart  of  the  story  will 
be  left.  And  therefore  the  peculiarity  of  this  Fourth  Gospel  is  that  it  is  all 
center.     There  is  nothing  in  it  but  the  person  of  Christ. 

The  striking  literary  illustration  of  this  is  the  fact  that  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  you  find  no  parables  ;  that  is,  no  parables  which  strictly  speaking  can 
be  called  parables.  You  have  in  the  tenth  chapter  the  so-called  allegory  of 
the  Good  Shepherd,  and  in  the  fifteenth  something  which  approaches  the 
parable,  but  they  can  not  be  called  that  in  any  exact  sense.  The  parable 
has  disappeared  in  John's  Gospel.  And  the  reason  is,  that  in  the  Synoptics 
they  are  in  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom,  but  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  the  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom  has  been  swallowed  up  in  the  person 
and  presence  of  the  King. 

Again,  to  carry  this  thought  one  step  further,  John  looks  back  at  the  life 
of  his  friend  through  His  death.  Herein  he  is  like  Paul,  but  herein  he  is 
also  unlike  Paul.  For  while  it  is  untrue  to  say  that  Paul  cared  nothing  for 
the  Christ  of  Galilee  and  Palestine,  it  is  quite  true  to  say  that  he  did  not  see 
deep  into  His  life  back  of  the  cross.  It  is  entirely  true  to  say  that  because 
Paul's  memory  was  not  stocked  with  the  living  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
because  his  mind  was  not  filled  with  the  results  of  an  intimate  personal 
acquaintance  with  Jesus  Christ,  the  background  of  Christ's  life,  as  Paul  sees 
it,  is  relatively  narrow.  But  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  there  is  a  great  back- 
ground of  the  Christ  of  history  standing  behind  the  Christ  of  the  cross.  The 
Fourth  Gospel  is  all  center.  The  center  is  the  cross.  But  the  eye  sees  deep 
into  the  life  back  of  the  cross. 

So  the  larger  context  which  we  must  carry  into  this  verse  is  this 
structure  of  the  Gospel.  Then  there  are  two  details  of  the  author's  program 
which  must  be  added  to  this.  The  first  is  that  in  the  Synoptics  there  is  no 
clear  distinction  between  the  church  and  the  crowd.  In  the  Fourth  Gospel 
the  church  is  distinct  from  the  crowd  from  the  very  first  day.  The  little 
company  of  personal  believers  who  have  been  called  by  Jesus  and  blessed 
by  His  intimacy,  and  through  that  have  been  taught  to  understand  Him, — 
they  are  distinct  and  separate  from  the  mass  at  the  outset,  and  remain  so  to 
the  end. 

The  other  element  which  must  be  carried  into  the  context  is  our  author's 
conception  of  the  Messianic  mob.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  religious  mob, 
you  know.  And  the  religious  mob  is  one  of  the  elements  in  our  author's 
conception  of  our  Lord's  life.  This  religious  mob,  or  Messianic  mob, 
is  like  the  chorus  in  the  Greek  play.  The  chorus  in  the  Greek  drama  has 
no  backbone   of   its  own;  it   is  constantly  taking  its  color  from  the   last 


THE  CONFESSION  OF  PETER.  155 

'  speaker,  if  he  speaks  forcibly  enough.  Thus  in  any  play  of  Sophocles  you 
can  always  tell  by  the  color  of  the  chorus  what  has  been  the  theme  of  the 
last  great  speaker.  Even  so  in  John's  Gospel  the  mass  of  half-believers 
is  constantly  taking  color  now  from  Jesus,  and  now  from  His  opponents, 
the  Jews.  Moving  now  backwards,  now  forwards,  they,  in  distinction  from 
the  disciples,  are  what  Luther  called  "  milk  disciples  ".  They  cannot  digest 
strong  food.  They  cannot  stand  upon  their  own  feet.  The  true  believer  is 
the  one  who  knew  Jesus  before  He  worked  any  miracle,  and  therefore  sees 
the  miracles  through  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  the  other  type  of 
believer  insists  upon  seeing  Jesus  through  the  miracles,  that  is,  upon  seeing 
the  Master  from  the  outside. 

And  now,  coming  to  the  more  immediate  context  let  us  look  at  chapter 
six  of  which  our  verse  is  a  part.  Chapter  six,  speaking  in  a  figure,  is  the 
watershed  of  the  Gospel.  It  records  the  supreme  crisis  in  the  Master's  life. 
On  the  far  side,  beginning  with  the  prologue,  we  trace  in  it  the  climax  in  the 
story  ot  our  Saviour's  popular  success.  On  the  nearer  side  of  it,  looking 
toward  the  passion  and  crucifixion,  lies  the  mcreasing  difficulty  of  His 
position,  the  deepening  doubt  and  unbelief  w-hich  issued  on  the  cross. 

You  remember  the  contents  of  the  chapter.  Jesus  had  not  thought  it 
best  to  go  up  personally  to  the  Passover.  So  He  must  needs  keep  the  Pass- 
over in  His  own  way  and  He  keeps  it  in  the  wilderness.  He  plays  the  part 
of  God's  host  out  there  in  the  wilderness,  and  His  guests  are  a  great  miscel- 
laneous crowd  of  pilgrims  who  are  on  the  way  to  the  Passover.  The  result 
of  Jesus'  wonderful  miracle,  that  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  was  that  the 
Messianic  ambition  of  the  crowd  straightway  sprang  to  life  :  as  John  tells  us, 
they  undertook  to  force  Jesus'  hand  and  to  make  Him  a  King.  They  were 
not  real  disciples.  They  were  masters  in  disguise.  Just  as  you  and  I  con- 
stantly in  our  life  with  Christ  and  God  play  the  part  of  master  and  try  to 
force  our  ambitions  upon  God  and  tell  Him  in  effect  that  we  will  turn 
Atheists,  if  He  does  not  let  us  have  our  own  way.  So  with  these  half- 
believers. 

This  Messianic  mob  tries,  in  the  enthusiasm  created  by  our  Lord's  great 
miracle,  to  force  Jesus' hand  and  to  make  Him  a  King.  And  there  for  the 
moment,  humanly  speaking,  the  gulf  opened  at  His  feet.  Humanly  speak- 
ing. He  came  within  an  inch  of  spoiling  God's  plans.  If  He  had  yielded, 
what  would  have  happened .''  Galilee  was  a  very  small  province  of  a  very 
small  country.  Jesus  was  in  sight  of  Tiberius  when  He  worked  the  miracle, 
and  if  He  had  yielded  a  single  inch  to  the  ambitions  of  that  Messianic  mob, 
there  would  have  been  a  rebellion,  an  attempt  at  a  popular  uprising.  So  the 
Master  saw  a  great  gulf  yawn  at  His  feet  and  you  must  carry  that  fact  in 
mind  in  order  to  understand  this  sixth  chapter ;  for  straightway  Jesus  puts 
the  faith  of  these  half-believers  to  the  test. 

First,  He  draws  Himself  aloof  from  them  and  goes  off  into  the  mountain 
alone.  On  the  morrow  the  crowd  seeks  Him  and  finds  Him.  He  puts  them 
to  the  test.  He  makes  faith  hard.  That  is  the  way  He  sometimes  treats  us. 
Christ  and  God  in  Him  are  constantly  making  faith  hard.     And  why  should 


IS6  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

faith  not  be  hard  ?  Why  should  faith  be  easy  ?  If  faith  were  easy,  it  would 
soon  become  cheap  and  not  worth  the  while  of  earnest  men  and  women. 
But  God  makes  faith  hard  in  order  to  test  the  believer.  And  Christ  here 
deliberately  made  faith  hard.  And  the  way  He  does  it,  you  will  remember, 
is  to  exalt  His  own  personality.  He  will  not  come  down  to  their  level,  they 
must  come  up  to  His.  He  exalts  His  own  personality  and  challenges  those 
believers  to  beUeve  in  Him,  not  because  of  His  miracle,  but  because  of  His 
person. 

But  they  balk  and  will  not  believe  on  those  terms.  And  you  will  remem- 
ber that  every  time  they  advance  a  difficulty,  Jesus,  instead  of  making  faith 
easier  makes  it  even  harder,  until  at  last  He  uses  the  symbolical  expressions 
of  the  bread  of  life,  and  declares  that  unless  they  eat  His  flesh  and  drink 
His  blood  they  cannot  be  saved. 

Thereupon  the  crowd  said  :  "  This  is  a  hard  saying  ".  The  Greek  there 
does  not  mean  that  Jesus'  saying  was  one  which  was  unintelligible.  They 
thought  they  understood  it  perfectly.  And  that  was  the  whole  trouble. 
Oftentimes  in  the  crisis  of  our  own  faith  the  real  trouble  is  that  we  think  we 
know.  We  have  got  it  in  our  heads,  the  thing  is  perfectly  intelligible,  only 
we  cannot  live  up  to  it.  So  the  crowd  did  not  say  "  This  is  a  hard  saying  ", 
because  they  did  not  understand  it.  If  they  had  said  that,  they  would  have 
stopped  to  listen.  For  when  you  know  a  thing  is  not  intelligible  to  you  and 
there  is  something  inside  of  it,  you  stop  and  listen.  But  the  crowd  was  very 
sure  they  knew  what  it  meant,  and  when  they  said  "A  hard  saying",  they 
meant  this  is  a  bad  saying,  utterly  impossible.  No  orthodox  Jewish  church- 
man can  entertain  it.  And  so  they  turned  their  backs  upon  Him  and  went 
off  to  their  old  way  of  life. 

Now  Jesus  turns  to  His  disciples  and  says,  with  pain  in  His  heart,  "Will 
ye  also  go  away  ?  "  Then  comes  the  answer  of  the  church,  speaking  through 
Simon  Peter :  "  Master,  to  whom  shall  we  go,  it  is  Thou,  and  Thou  only  who 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life  ".  The  words  of  eter?ial/ife, — that  is  to  say,  in 
the  first  instance,  words  which  bring  with  them  irresistible  conviction.  The 
great  mass  of  words  do  not,  just  because  there  is  such  a  mass  of  them.  The 
newspaper  brings  no  conviction,  it  never  is  meant  to.  The  average  novel 
which  we  read  is  a  kind  of  intellectual  opiate  when  we  are  tired.  Ninety- 
nine  hundredths  of  what  we  call  our  conversation  carries  no  conviction,  for 
nowhere  in  it  is  a  word  that  has  wings,  a  word  that  breathes  and  burns.  But 
sometimes  there  are  words  that  bring  irresistible  conviction,  words  that  come 
from  the  heart  and  life  of  the  speaker  and  go  straight  to  the  heart  of  the 
hearer.  And  Peter,  representing  the  living  church  in  all  days,  says  to  the 
Saviour:  "Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life".  He  means  in  the  first 
instance  words  which  bring  irresistible  conviction  and  certitude, 

"  The  words  of  eternal  life".  When  we  have  taken  that  phrase,  which 
is  one  of  the  constantly  repeated  phrases  of  this  Gospel,  and  have  studied  it 
long  enough,  the  substantive  swallows  up  the  adjective.  The  word  life  is 
enough.  There  was  a  time  when  I  was  a  boy,  and  then  mere  life  was  eternal 
life.     When  I  was  a  freshman  in  college,  mere  life  for  me  was  eternal  life. 


THE  CONFESSION  OF  PETER.  157 

I  do  not  believe  any  freshman,  unless  he  is  exceedingly  mature  when  he 
enters,  is  ever  conscious  of  a  lack  of  time.  He  has  all  the  time  there  is  and 
a  good  deal  more.  Time  seems  to  appear  absolutely  limitless  to  the  boy  just 
entering  college.  But  what  happened  as  we  grew  up  ?  If  we  are  earnest 
there  appears  a  disproportion  between  time  and  work.  As  years  come  on 
and  responsibilities  are  assumed  and  life  is  seen  and  understood  in  all  its 
vastness,  the  disproportion  becomes  almost  terrible. 

Then  the  tragedy  of  life  begins.  Life  threatens  to  become  a  slow  fever. 
You  remember  Macbeth's  words  about  the  man  he  has  murdered,  "After 
life's  fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well  ".  The  great  trouble  in  growing  up  is  that 
life  becomes  a  fever.  What  one  of  us  has  not  the  fever  of  life  in  his  veins  ? 
What  one  of  us  does  not,  nearly  every  day,  fall  out  of  eternity  into  time,  and 
spoil  our  day's  work  by  being  anxious  and  worried  about  it,  allowing  the 
thing  we  call  time  to  put  its  jagged  teeth  into  it  and  sometimes  gnaw  the 
very  heart  out  of  it.  And  how  are  we  to  do  a  real  day's  work?  Only  by 
living  in  eternity.  The  true  Christian  does  live  day  by  day  in  eternity. 
Whenever  a  man  really  prays  he  passes  out  of  time  into  eternity.  The 
reason  why  prayer  is  the  Christian's  fountain  of  youth  is  that  it  remakes  and 
refreshes  him.  For,  when  we  pray,  we  go  into  eternity  and  return  out  of 
prayer  into  time,  refreshed  and  recreated. 

Peter,  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  living  church,  which  1  venture  to 
define  as  that  body  of  men  and  women  who  hnve  learned  how  to  pray  and 
therefore  have  learned  how  to  work, — Peter,  speaking  in  the  name  of  the 
living  church,  says  to  the  Master,  "  Thou  hast  the  secret  of  eternal  life  • 
Thou  alone  canst  impart  to  men  the  art  of  doing  the  full  day's  work  while 
time  lasts  in  the  spirit  and  presence  of  the  Eternal  ".  And  why  ?  Because 
Jesus  is  the  revelation  of  a  personal  God.  What  do  we  mean  by  person- 
ality ?  Well,  that  is  a  very  deep  question.  Perhaps  I  ought  not  to  have 
asked  it,  for,  when  a  question  is  asked,  you  must  try  to  answer  it.  But  I 
could  not  help  it.  The  simple  truth  is  that  what  we  call  real  thinking  con- 
sists in  asking  almost  impossible  questions  and  doing  our  best  with  the 
answer.  What,  then,  do  we  mean  by  the  personality  of  God  ?  What  do 
you  mean  by  your  own  personality  ?  For,  unless  you  have  some  conception 
of  your  own  personality  you  are  using  a  mere  phrase,  entering  a  mist  of 
words  when  you  talk  about  the  personality  of  God.  What,  then,  do  you 
mean  by  calling  yourself  a  person  ? 

We  have  not  gone  far  into  the  mystery  of  personality.  We  have  just 
begun  to  spell  it  out  in  words  of  one  syllable.  That  is  all.  But,  so  far  as 
we  know  anything  about  the  personality,  it  means  three  things,  or  rather 
three  aspects  of  one  thing.  First  of  all,  it  means  self-knowledge.  The  dif- 
ference between  a  person  and  the  man  or  woman  who  is  not  a  person  is  the 
difference  between  people  who  do  not  know  and  those  who  do  know  them- 
selves. That  splendid  Greek  motto  put  upon  the  temple  at  Delphi,  "  Know 
thyself "  is  the  maxim  of  every  spirit.  And  here  again  let  me  quote  Shake- 
speare to  illuminate  the  subject.  You  remember  how,  in  King  Lear,  Gon- 
eril  says  about  her  father,  after  the  awful  tragedy  has  begun,  "  He  did  but 


iS8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

slenderly  know  himself  ".  It  seems  to  me  that  is  one  of  the  neglected  hints 
in  the  study  of  Lear.  There,  almost  under  his  breath,  the  great  dramatist 
himself  gives  us  the  clew  to  the  tragedy.  It  grew  out  of  King  Lear's  slender 
knowledge  of  himself.  And  all  of  the  real  tragedies  of  life  grow  out  of  our 
imperfect  knowledge  of  ourselves.  To  know  one's  self  is  the  first  thing  per- 
sonality means.  And  when  we  speak  about  God  we  mean  that  God  alone 
knows  Himself. 

Secondly,  personality  means  self-mastery.  Find  a  true  man  or  woman 
and  you  find  beings  who  shape  and  plan  their  own  lives.  Find  men  and 
women  who  are  not  persons,  and  you  shall  find  jelly  fish,  and  they  are  as 
thick,  sometimes,  as  jelly  fish  in  any  particular  part  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy. 
I  have  leaned  over  my  boat,  sometimes,  and  counted  jelly  fish,  it  seemed  to 
me,  up  to  ten  thousand  to  a  hundred  square  feet  of  water.  Sometimes, 
when  one  sees  crowds  of  people  driven  towards  barren  conclusions  and 
barren  actions,  one  is  tempted  to  think  that  he  sees  a  great  mass  of  jelly 
fish  who  are  driven  with  the  tide.  When  you  find  persons,  you  find  people 
who  plan  their  lives  and  then  live  them  according  to  a  plan.  Now,  when 
we  speak  of  the  personality  of  God,  we  mean  that  He  is  complete  master  of 
Himself. 

Thirdly,  when  we  speak  of  personality,  this  is  our  meaning.  Find  a 
great  human  person,  and  you  shall  find  someone  who  has  the  art  of  reveal- 
ing himself  in  everything  that  he  does.  I  have  known  just  one  great  man  in 
my  life,  Phillips  Brooks.  And  he  is  the  only  great  man  I  expect  to  meet  on 
this  side  of  the  grave.  Phillips  Brooks,  because  he  was  great,  had  the  art  of 
revealing  the  greatness  of  his  nature  in  mere  trivialities.  And  just  in  pro- 
portion as  we  become  personal  and  live  the  personal  life,  have  we  the  gift 
and  art  of  imparting  our  entire  self  to  those  who  touch  us  and  those  who 
know  us.  Is  not  this  the  blessed  mystery  of  friendship  ?  What  do  we  mean 
by  friendship,  whether  it  be  that  of  husband  and  wife,  or  of  man  and  man, 
or  of  woman  and  woman  ?  We  mean  just  this.  Where  you  find  friends  you 
find  persons,  and  where  you  find  persons  you  find  people  capable  of  reveal- 
ing themselves  to  each  other  so  completely  that  trivial  things  cease  to  be. 
There  is  no  trifle  in  friendship.  You  outgrow  trifles  when  you  become 
friends.  Friendship  is  the  life  of  persons  walking  together  in  the  light  of 
the  eternal. 

This  is  what  we  aim  at  when  we  apply  the  term  to  God.  He  alone  abso- 
lutely knows  Himself.  He  alone  absolutely  masters  Himself.  He  alone 
has  in  Himself  the  perfect  art  of.  self-revelation.  Touch  God  and  you  touch 
the  whole  of  Him.  There  are  no  fractions  in  a  person.  There  are  no  frac- 
tions in  God.  But  where  shall  we  go  to  find  God  as  a  person  ?  Where  .■' 
except  to  Christ.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  once  said  that  when  he  said  "God  ", 
without  thinking  of  Christ,  there  went  up  in  his  mind  a  vague  mental  mist. 
That  is  just  what  happens  to  us  when  we  say  "God"  without  thinking  of 
Christ.  There  rises  in  our  minds  a  vague  mental  mist,  a  mere  spiritual 
exhalation.  When  we  want  to  see  God  as  a  person  we  go  to  Christ,  and 
through  Him, — the  absolutely  perfect  man,  who  is  at  the  same  time  abso- 


THE  CONFESSION  OF  PETER.  159 

lutely  the  Son  of  the  Father, — God,  or  the  personal  Hfe  is  revealed  to  us. 
Seeing  Christ,  we  see  God.  Touching  Christ  we  have  the  revelation  of 
God's  personal  life.  When  we  ally  ourselves  to  the  personality  of  God  we 
ourselves  become  in  principle  and  in  potence  persons.  And  only  through 
our  alliance  with  the  personality  of  God,  as  revealed  and  incarnated  in  Christ, 
can  we  become  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word  persons  and  do  a  person's 
work. 

The  alternative  to  the  incarnation,  the  alternative  to  belief  in  Christ  as 
the  final  revelation  of  a  personal  God  is  Pantheism.  The  parable  of  Pan- 
theism cannot  be  better  expressed  than  in  the  parable  of  the  sick  lion. 
The  lion  became  an  invalid,  you  remember,  and  since  he  could  not  go  out 
to  get  his  game  he  anticipated  modern  fashions  and  had  a  five  o'clock  tea. 
He  sent  out  invitations  to  all  his  subjects  to  come  and  see  him.  But  the  fox 
refused  to  go.  When  the  fox  was  asked  why,  he  said  that  he  had  noticed 
that  all  the  tracks  went  one  way,  that  the  animals  who  went  to  that  royal  five 
o'clock  tea  apparently  never  came  back.  This  is  the  parable  of  Pantheism. 
In  Pantheism  we  have  no  foothold  for  human  individuality.  In  order  to 
make  yourself  one  with  the  eternal  substance  of  things  you  allow  that  sub- 
stance of  things  to  swallow  you  up.     These  words  are  in  point : 

•'  Like  bubbles  on  the  sea  of  matter  born, 
We  rise,  we  break,  and  to  that  sea  return  ". 

God  is  a  spiritual  sea.  We  rise  out  of  it  as  the  bubble  rises,  and,  like  the 
bubble,  we  break. 

But  in  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  there  is  firm  ground  for 
an  ethical  conception  of  personality,  and  nowhere  else.  So  we,  who  in  our 
imperfect  measure  are  members  of  the  living  church,  that  church  which  is 
made  up  in  all  ages  of  the  men  and  women  who  have  learned  to  pray,  and 
because  they  have  learned  this  have  learned  how  to  live  in  eternity  and 
to  do  their  day's  work  with  none  of  the  fever  of  time  in  their  veins,  we  say 
to  the  Lord  Jesus  what  Peter  said  in  our  name  centuries  ago,  "  Lord,  to 
whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life  ".  We  are  shut  up 
to  Christ.  And  why  ?  I  heard  this  morning  of  a  man  who  discussed  theol- 
ogy with  one  of  our  theological  students  while  he  was  tinkering  his  teeth. 
One  comes  upon  theology  in  very  queer  places,  sometimes.  This  discussion 
happened  in  a  dentist's  shop.  The  dentist  said  to  the  theological  student, 
"  My  god  is  electricity  ".  Well,  that  looks  like  a  very  clever  thing.  It 
depends  a  good  deal  upon  his  manners.  If  he  said  it  in  a  crude,  sophomoric 
way,  all  you  can  do  is  to  wait  until  you  and  he  can  meet  somewhere.  You 
cannot  meet  the  mind  of  a  man  who  says  sophomorically,  "  My  god  is  elec- 
tricity". To  use  Cardinal  Newman's  fine  expression,  "You  might  just  as 
well  try  to  get  up  a  duel  between  a  dog  and  a  fish  ".  To  argue  is  to  waste 
one's  time.  You  must  wait  for  other  opportunities  before  you  try  to  defend 
the  work  of  Christ  to  such  a  man.  But  suppose  he  says  it  reverently  ?  Sup- 
pose he  means  that  electricity  is  the  latest  revelation  of  the  universe,  and  so 
is  the  symbol  of  its  majesty  and  mystery. 

What  do  you  say  to  him  ?     If  you  know  your  Christ  you  wont  dream  of 


i6o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  SI.  JOHN. 

burning  him  at  the  stake,  and  when  you  refuse  to  Usten  to  a  heretic  you  are 
in  principle  burning  him  at  the  stake.  If  you  are  allowed  by  history  to  get 
your  hands  on  the  reins  of  power  you  would  resume  the  habit  of  burning 
him  in  order  to  get  him  out  of  existence.  But  suppose  we  have  outgrown 
that  habit,  and  have  the  patience  to  listen  to  the  heretic,  what  shall  we  say 
to  him  who  reverently  says  that  electricity  is  his  god .-'  Something  like  this, 
"  Your  words  are  all  very  well  as  far  as  they  go  ".  But  how  far  do  they  '^o  ? 
What  is  the  day's  work  of  a  man  ?  to  mend  broken  human  teeth  ?  Is  it  to 
pick  out  a  little  corner  of  the  earth  and  know  it  well?  As  Voltaire  said, 
"  To  cultivate  his  little  garden  "  ?  We  have  all  kinds  of  avccalicns,  but  the 
vocation  of  us  all  is  to  be  deep-minded  men  and  women,  doing  the  entire 
task  of  men  and  women.  But  what  is  the  whole  task  of  men  and  women  ? 
Why,  as  we  spell  it  here,  it  is  to  take  your  city  of  Providence  and  make  it 
look  a  little  bit  like  the  New  Jerusalem.  To  take  New  York,  or  any  other 
place  and  make  it  look  a  bit  like  the  heavenly  city.  And  how  are  you  going 
to  do  it  ?  If  you  take  this  and  nothing  less  to  be  your  vocation,  and  the 
mending  of  teeth  to  be  your  avocation,  a  mere  method  of  meeting  economic 
expenses  while  you  give  your  whole  heart  to  your  real  business  in  life,  where 
shall  you  go  to  build  your  strength  ? 

Where  shall  you  get  the  power  to  do  that  day's  work  ?  It  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  tinker  teeth  and  do  it  well.  It  is  comparatively  easy  to  study 
this  or  that  branch  of  history  or  science,  and  do  it  tolerably  well.  But  to 
tackle  this  great  day's  work  of  making  your  Providence  or  my  Boston,  or 
somebody's  New  York  really  look  like  God's  heavenly  and  holy  city,  that 
calls  for  a  different  sort  of  god.  Electricity  will  not  serve.  Unless  we  are 
to  take  the  ostrich  for  our  patron  saint  and  try  to  solve  difficulties  by  hid- 
ing our  heads  in  the  sand,  there  is  just  one  way  to  take.  We  desire  to 
stand  up  to  our  great  task  like  men,  never  faltering,  never  faint-hearted,  but 
being  for  the  faint-hearted  like  that  splendid  figure  in  the  second  part  of 
"Pilgrim's  Progress",  Captain  Great-Heart.  Where  shall  the  Captain 
Great-Heart,  standing  for  the  redemption  of  society,  find  the  secret  of  his 
great-heartedness  ?  There  is  only  one  place  where  men  who  are  seeking  to 
do  this  great  work  can  find  it,  and  that  is  in  the  revelation  of  a  personal 
God,  who,  through  His  friendship,  promises  to  them  all  His  power  and 
mind  and  goodness  and  might.  We  are  shut  up  to  Christ  because  He  is 
the  one  perfect  revelation  of  a  personal  God,  and  because  we  would  fain  do 
a  man's  whole  work  before  we  die.  And  so  we  say  to  Him,  as  Peter 
said  to  Him  in  our  name,  "Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life  ". 


*  JESUS'  CONTROVERSIES  WITH  THE  JEWS. 
(See  Chapters  7-10.) 

by  rkv.  mki^ancthoisr  w.  ja-cobus,  i).  t>., 

HosMER     Professor  of   New  Testament   Exegesis  and  Criticism,   TIartkord 
Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn. 

To  understand  Jesus'  controversies  with  the  Jews  we  must  understand 
the  Jews  with  whom  the  controversies  were  held,  and  to  understand  the 
Jews  we  must  read  their  history  from  the  time  they  returned  from  their 
exile  to  re-occupy  the  Holy  Land. 

That  history  divides  itself  into  three  periods :  The  Persian  period, 
extending  from  538  to  332.  B.  C. ;  the  Greek  period,  from  332  to  167,  B.  C, 
and  the  Maccabean  period,  from  167  to  63,  B.  C,  when  Syria  became  a 
Roman  province. 

Of  the  Persian  period,  little  is  known  in  detail.  In  general,  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people  was  sad.  The  rule  was  oppressive,  especially  towards 
the  close  of  the  period,  so  that  Alexander  and  his  armies  were  hailed  as 
divine  deliverers.  In  the  Greek  period  the  condition  at  first  was  favorable, 
but  towards  the  close  it  degenerated,  reaching  its  climax  of  oppression  and 
corruption  in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  against  whose  reckless 
desecration  of  the  temple  and  brutal  imposition  of  infamous  laws  there 
arose  the  famous  revolt  of  the  Maccabees. 

Now,  this  revolt  was  in  its  essence  a  religious  rebellion,  crystalizing 
itself  in  a  party  of  national  opposition  to  foreign  rule  ;  but  as  the  revolt  pro- 
ceeded, the  national  party  developed  in  the  direction  of  political  self-seek- 
ing, making  its  aim  and  passion  official  power  rather  than  religious  rights. 
As  a  consequence,  the  old  religious  element  in  the  party  separated  itself 
into  a  party  of  its  own,  a  party  whose  opposition  was  more  against  the 
national  party,  which  had  become  political,  than  against  the  foreign  rule 
itself. 

,  As  this  religious  party,  however,  began  to  develop  more  zeal  for  reli- 
gion than  for  the  nation,  there  separated  from  it  still  another  party,  a  party 
of  revolutionary  fanaticism,  whose  opposition  was  thrown  against  both  the 
other  parties,  while,  as  this  national  party  in  its  political  self-seeking  came 
to  throw  itself  in  favor  of  the  foreign  rule  it  had  first  opposed,  there  arose 
another  party  of  like  political  cast,  but  of  no  religious  element,  gathering 
around  the  reigning  family  in  Palestine,  and  having  for  its  object  the 
re-establishment  of  the  Herodian  kingdom  in  the  spirit  of  its  traditional 
policy,  namely,  the  union  of  Judaism  and   Hellenism.     This  was  a  party 

*  Delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  (irace  Episcopal  Church,  January  13,  1004. 

161 


i62  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

whose  opposition  was  against  all  the  three  parties  as  far  as  they  were  reli- 
gious, but  whose  favor  was  extended  toward  them  all  as  far  as  they  were 
political. 

There  is  no  need  of  my  naming  these  parties  I  have  described.  They 
are  named  in  their  description.  The  party  seeking  political  gain  was  the 
party  of  the  Sadducees,  the  party  which  represented  in  itself  one  of  the  two 
great  tendencies  present  in  the  nation  after  its  return  from  the  exile — the 
tendency  to  mingle  with  the  heathen  world,  a  tendency  characteristic  of  the 
priestly  aristocracy  among  the  Jews.  The  religiously  separating  party  was 
the  party  of  the  Pharisees,  the  party  which  represented  in  itself  the  other 
great  tendency  present  after  the  exile — the  tendency  to  keep  aloof  from 
heathendom  and  preserve  the  traditional  religion  pure,  a  tendency  charac- 
teristic of  the  people  of  the  Jews.  The  fanatical  party  was  the  party  of  the 
Zealots,  the  parly  which  believed  in  the  sword  to  save  the  cause,  a  party 
reckless  in  its  zeal  but  strangely  sincere  in  its  recklessness,  a  party  to  which 
Ben  Hur  might  have  belonged,  a  party  which  had  a  representative  in  the 
apostolic  circle.  The  dynastic  party  was  the  party  of  the  Herodians,  a 
party  which  gathered  around  the  political  leadership  that  professed  to  be 
religious,  but  whose  union  of  religion  and  culture  reduced  religion  to  a  hol- 
low farce  and  culture  to  a  mimicry,  and  left  nothing  real  but  politics. 

Now,  if  these  parties  could  have  been  kept  apart,  there  might  have  con- 
fronted Jesus  a  clear  cut  line  between  politics  and  religion.  But  how  was  it 
possible  for  them  to  be  kept  apart?  With  the  Jew,  religion  was  a  part  of 
his  national  life,  and  national  life  was  a  part  of  his  religion.  No  more 
really  so  was  it  in  Scotland  in  the  time  of  the  Covenanters,  or  in  Holland  in 
the  time  of  the  Spanish  rule,  than  it  was  in  Judea  in  the  time  of  Herod  and 
Pontius  Pilate.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  much  as  the  Pharisees  disavowed  poli- 
tics, and  the  Sadducees  disavowed  devotion  to  the  Mosaic  law^,  the  national 
fortunes  of  the  Jews  drew  these  two  parties  into  alliances  and  then  again 
into  oppositions  that  brought  religion  and  politics  into  an  inextricable 
tangle  in  the  nation's  life,  while  the  Herodians  professed  such  religion  as 
they  had  for  purely  political  ends,  and  the  Zealots  practiced  such  politics  as 
they  dared  with  a  purely  religious  spirit. 

To  be  sure,  in  all  this  tangle  of  the  secular  and  the  religious,  there  was, 
as  there  always  is,  an  element  among  the  people  who  kept  religion  pure. 
You  see  it  in  such  persons  as  Simeon  and  Anna,  in  the  Baptist  and  his  dis- 
ciples, and  the  family  and  kins-folk  from  Avhich  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  Him- 
self came.  You  see  it  also  in  a  distinctive  group  of  religionists,  who  were 
not  a  party,  or  even  a  sect,  but  rather  a  brotherhood  w^ho  came  from  the 
same  pious  stock  as  the  Pharisees,  but,  unlike  them  in  their  yielding  to 
politics,  separated  themselves  even  from  the  ordinary  life  of  men — the 
Essenes,  who  represented  in  themselves  a  deep  underlying  tendency  always 
present  in  the  popular  Jewish  mind,  a  tendency  to  thoughtfulness  on 
religious  things. 

These  were  the  Jews  with  whom  Jesus  had  to  deal.  This  was  the 
atmosphere  in  which  His  ministry  was  cast.     Was  it  possible,  then,  for  con- 


JESUS'  CONTROVERSIES  WITH  THE  JEWS.  163 

troversy  not  to  rise  ?  Bring  before  this  politico-religious  party  life  the  spir- 
itual mission  of  Jesus,  confront  the  conceptions  of  character  which  it  created 
with  the  spiritual  personality,  the  divinely  spiritual  self  of  Jesus,  and  what 
must  have  happened  ?  The  Sadducees  would  oppose  it  all,  because  Jesus' 
teachings  were  based  on  piety  and  not  on  culture,  while  Jesus  Himself 
involved  a  divine  revelation  and  not  an  agnostic  skepticism.  The  Pharisees 
would  resent  it  all,  because  Jesus  and  His  teachings  laid  the  hand  on  legal- 
istic ceremony  and  swept  it  away.  The  Zealots  would  not  understand  it, 
because  Jesus  did  not  reveal  Himself  along  the  line  of  fire  and  sword.  The 
Herodians  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  because  Jesus  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  artificiality  of  their  ideas  and  the  politics  of  their  j\ims.  Even 
the  Essenes,  who  might  be  supposed  to  be  religiously  and  spiritually  nearest 
to  it,  would  turn  against  it,  because  Jesus  would  not  turn  against  the  every- 
day life  and  experience  of  men.  And  so  it  came  that,  though  these  parties 
hated  each  other,  time  and  again  combinations  among  them  threw  their 
forces  against  Jesus  and  His  work.  There  was  Jesus'  healing  of  the  with- 
ered hand  on  the  Sabbath  day.  What  cared  the  Herodians  for  the  Sabbath 
law  and  custom  ?  Yet  they  plotted  with  the  Pharisees  against  His  life. 
There  was  the  demand  for  a  sign  from  heaven.  What  belief  had  the  Sad- 
ducees in  heaven  or  a  sign  from  there  ?  Yet  they  united  with  the  Pharisees 
in  demanding  it.  There  was  the  open  claim  of  His  Messiahship  which 
Jesus  placed  before  the  people's  leaders  in  the  holy  week,  and  instinctively 
Pharisee,  Sadducee,  and  Herodians  tried  to  break  it  down.  It  was  the  one 
great  fact  of  a  spiritual  movement  in  the  midst  of  them,  the  one  great  fact  of 
a  supremely  spiritual  personality  among  them,  the  one  great  fact  of  an  abso- 
lutely spiritual  claim  before  them  that  broke  in  upon  the  dream  of  their 
political  ideals,  that  smote  the  indifference  of  their  materialism,  that  crushed 
the  self-conceit  of  their  ceremonialism,  and  brought  them  all  to  realize  that 
if  the  Galilean  won  His  way  their  day  of  power  and  life  was  gone. 

Now  take  all  this  and  see  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  Fourth  Gospel. 
There  is  a  great  difference  between  the  Synoptic  Gospels  and  the  Gospel  of 
John,  and  the  greatness  of  that  difference  lies  at  the  point  of  Jesus'  dis- 
courses. In  the  Synoptists  they  are  parables  of  fields  and  flowers,  of  home 
and  business  life,  plain  and  simple  talks  on  the  common  themes  of  every 
day.  In  the  Gospel  of  John  they  are  deep  and  profound  discourses  on 
themes  transcending  human  experience,  but  the  striking  thing  about  these 
transcendental  themes  is  that  they  gather  around  the  one  subject  of  Jesus 
Himself  and  His  relation  to  God  and  the  unseen  universe. 

Why  this  marked  difference  between  this  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  rest  ? 
Is  it  that  the  Synoptists  alone  give  us  the  story  of  Jesus'  ministry,  the 
Fourth  Gospel  coming  from  some  later  writer  who  knew  more  of  Greek 
philosophy  than  he  did  of  Jesus'  teaching?  Could  the  same  Jesus  not  give 
both  kinds  of  teaching  ?  Turn  over  the  Gospel  pages,  and  you  will  see  that 
significantly  the  Synoptic  talks  were  given,  almost  all  of  them,  in  the  early 
part  of  Jesus'  ministry  to  the  peasant  folk  of  Galilee,  the  simple-minded 
people  to  whom  these  simple  talks  brought  apprehension  of  God's  spiritual 


1 64  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

truth,  while  the  Fourth  Gospel  discourses  were  given,  almost  all  of  them,  in 
the  later  part  of  Jesus'  ministry  to  the  ecclesiastical  Jews  of  Jerusalem,  the 
speculative,  controversial,  the  politically  scheming  Jews,  whose  one  objec- 
tion to  Jesus  was  that  He  claimed  to  have  a  spiritual  truth  from  God  to 
declare. 

You  see  then  what  this  gathering  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  themes  around 
the  person  and  self  of  Jesus  means.  It  is  not  the  poetizing  of  a  philo- 
sophic writer  who  knew  naught  of  Jesus  or  His  truth.  These  discourses 
are  Jesus'  teaching.  They  are  the  teaching  of  the  same  Jesus  who  speaks 
to  us  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  parables  by  the  sea,  only  now  He 
is  confronting  the  Jews'  materialism,  their  political,  self-seeking,  nationalizing 
materialism,  with  the  great  claims  of  the  spiritualism  of  a  God  who  must  be 
worshipped  in  spirit  and  truth,  and  who  could  be  seen  and  known  only  in 
the  spiritual  Lordship  of  Jesus  Himself  over  personal  character  and  life. 
It  was  the  controversy  which  came  naturally  at  the  close  of  Jesus'  ministry, 
as  the  opposition  to  Him  by  the  religious  leaders  came  to  its  inevitable  issue, 
and  Jesus'  claims  against  it  came  to  their  inevitable  declaration  in  the  full. 

Now,  go  through  the  scenes  the  Fourth  Gospel  gives  us,  and  see  how 
all  this  works  itself  out. 

1.  There  is  Jesus  in  Jerusalem  at  the  Pool  of  Bethesda.  The  impotent 
man  is  lying  on  the  threshold  of  supposed  healing,  with  no  one  to  help  him 
across.  Jesus  comes  and  says  to  him,  "Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk", 
and  immediately  the  man  was  made  whole,  took  up  his  bed  and  walked ; 
and  the  same  day  was  the  Sabbath.  Ah,  there  was  the  trouble  !  The  scribes 
and  Pharisees  are  quick  to  the  scent.  They  stop  the  man  :  "  It  is  the  Sabbath 
Day,  knowest  thou  not?"  Everyone  in  Jerusalem  knew  that,  if  he  knew 
nothing  else.  "  It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  carry  thy  bed  ".  Everyone  knew 
that,  too.  "  But  He  that  made  me  whole,  the  same  said  unto  me,  '  Take  up 
thy  bed  and  walk  '  ".  "  Who  made  thee  whole  ?  "  "I  know  not".  But  He 
must  be  brought  to  know,  for  the  issue  between  the  Pharisees  and  Jesus 
must  be  straightway  drawn.  So  Jesus  came  and  disclosed  Himself  to  him, 
in  order  that  he  might  tell  the  Pharisees.  And  he  told  them,  and  imme- 
diately they  began  to  persecute  Jesus  and  to  seek  to  slay  Him,  because  He 
laid  His  hand  upon  the  burdened  ritualism  of  the  Sabbath  Day  to  break  it 
down.  But  why  draw  the  issue  ?  Why  not  leave  the  Pharisees  to  the  idea 
of  their  Sabbath  Day  ?  Simply  because  the  Pharisees  must  come  to  know 
that  the  Sabbath  finds  itself  in  no  lordship  over  man,  but  only  in  such  a 
service  to  him  as  is  possible  by  the  lordship  over  it  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
Sabbath  must  be  saved  from  the  materialism  of  the  scribes.  The  spiritual 
Christ  must  be  put  in  authority  and  power  over  it. 

2.  There  is  Jesus  in  Jerusalem  again.  It  is  the  Feast  of  Dedication. 
The  people  are  in  a  great  quandary  about  Him.  Some  say  that  He  is  a  good 
man  ;  others  say  He  deceives  the  people.  Some  say  that  He  is  the  Christ ; 
others,  that  He  has  a  devil.  Murmuring  and  division  among  the  people 
because  they  could  not  understand  how  He  could  heal  diseases,  cure  infirm- 
ities, cast  out  demons,  raise  the  dead,  show  all  the  wonder  marks  of  the 


/ES  US '  CONTR  O  VERS  FES  WITH  THE  JE  WS.  165 

Messiah  and  yet  not  reveal  Himself  to  the  world,  the  world  of  the  nation's 
politics,  the  world  of  the  nation's  policy  against  Rome.  Into  all  this  con- 
fusion Jesus  steps,  and  on  that  last  great  day  of  the  Feast,  when  the  sending 
of  the  great  procession  with  its  symbolic  water  of  Messianic  refreshing 
testified  to  the  people's  confession  that  the  Messiah  had  not  yet  come,  the 
Messiah  they  looked  for,  on  that  great  day  He  stands,  and  over  against  all 
this  bald  materialism  of  religion  lifts  up  Himself  in  full  announcement  of 
His  spiritual  self  and  person.  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me 
and  drink  '". 

O,  the  clearness  of  the  issue !  The  people  of  God  confessing  no  Messiah 
had  come,  and  the  Messiah  in  their  midst !  O,  the  pathos  of  the  situation  I 
The  raging  thirst  for  national  power  and  life,  and  no  thought  of  quenching 
it  anywhere  save  at  the  dried  up  wells  of  politics  and  culture,  and  the  living 
water  there  at  their  hand !  The  helpless  groping  after  a  light,  that  groping 
in  the  darkness  of  the  world  around  them,  and  no  thought  of  finding  it  apart 
from  the  ignis  fatuus  of  ritualism  and  revolution,  and  the  light  of  life  shining 
before  their  eyes  !  The  constant  problem  of  their  relationship  to  God,  and 
no  idea  of  solving  it  save  only  through  a  hold  upon  the  history  of  the  past ; 
the  promises,  the  covenant,  the  fathers,  Abraham,  everything  back  to  that, 
and  there  among  them  He  Who  is  before  Abraham  was !  The  ever  present 
irritation  of  their  dispersion  in  the  world,  the  ever  sounding  cry  for  a  reali- 
zing of  the  covenant  fold  and  the  covenant  care,  for  God's  presence  with  its 
mastering  power,  and  no  conception  of  how  to  secure  this  all,  save  through 
the  materialism  of  life,  and  there  pleadirg  with  them  the  One  Who  was  the 
door  of  the  sheep ;  the  Good  Shepherd,  Who  was  ready  to  give  unto  them 
eternal  life,  and  from  Whose  hand  nothing  would  ever  pluck  them  away ! 

And  the  days  pass  on  while  the  shadows  of  Calvary  gather.  The  Jews 
do  not  see  them  ;  the  disciples  do  not  perceive  them  ;  no  one  is  conscious  of 
them  save  Him  Who  had  known  of  them  all  along  and  Whose  soul  was 
troubled  through  them  and  exalted  by  them  as  no  human  soul  could  be. 
"  Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone ;  but 
if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit ".  The  hour  was  come  that  the  Son  of 
Man  should  be  glorified.  The  judgment  of  the  Jews  against  the  Christ  was 
fast  approaching,  but  it  should  be  a  judgment  of  the  Christ  against  the  Jews. 
"  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world.  Now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be 
cast  out,  and  I  " — oh,  how  the  whole  thing  gathers  up  in  the  Christ  Himself  ! 
— "  and  /,  if  /be  lifted  up,  shall  draw  all  men  unto  Me  ".  And  the  people 
could  comprehend  naught  of  it,  save  to  say,  "  How  sayest  Thou,  the  Son  of 
Man  must  be  lifted  up?     Who  is  this  Son  of  Man  ?" 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  as  the  shadows  came  they  fell  with  greater  dark- 
ness on  the  Jews  than  they  did  on  the  Christ?  A  few  months  before,  Jesus 
had  said  to  them :  "  I  am  the  bread  of  life ;  he  that  cometh  to  Me  shall 
never  hunger;  he  that  believeth  on  Me  shall  never  thirst".  And  now  they 
were  dragging  Him  up  before  Pilate,  and  crying,  "  A  malefactor !  Crucify 
Him  ".  Truly  "The  light  shineth  in  the  darkness,  and  the  darkness  appre- 
hended it  not".     To  Pilate  Jesus  might  say:     "I  came  into  the  world  that 


1 66  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

I  might  bear  witness  to  the  truth  ",  and  Pilate  reply,  "  What  is  truth  ?  "  and 
put  the  truth  upon  the  cross  and  let  it  die,  and  it  signified  but  little  to  him, 
a  pagan  mind  of  pagan  training.  What  else  might  we  expect?  But  that 
throughout  His  ministry  Jesus  should  have  held  Himself  up  before  the 
people  of  God  and  declared  Himself  to  them  as  the  truth,  and  they  cry  out 
against  Him  as  the  lie !  O  Christ,  how  deep  the  gulf  between  Thy  spiritual 
self  and  the  materialism  of  the  world  ! 

And  they  led  Him  away,  and  the  soldiers  crucified  Him,  and  Pilate 
wrote  over  His  head  "  The  King  of  the  Jews  ",  and  the  Jews  mocked  and 
railed  at  Him :  "  If  Thou  be  the  King  of  the  Jews,  come  down  from  the 
cross  and  we  will  believe  Thee  ",  And  as  the  darkness  fell  upon  them  and 
the  quaking  earth  rocked  beneath  their  feet,  they  smote  upon  their  breasts 
and  returned  to  their  homes  and  said  :  "  The  light  of  this  imposter  has  gone 
out  ".  Yes,  so  it  had,  but  only  that  it  might  burst  forth  again  in  resurrection 
splendor.  Yet  they  saw  it  not,  for  the  darkness  of  their  souls  remained 
within  them ;  and  when  the  risen  Christ  was  proclaimed  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  they  killed  the  men  who  preached  Him  as  they  had  killed  the  Christ 
Himself,  because  ever  stands  the  darkness  of  the  world  against  the  light  of 
God,  ever  blind  to  it  and  so  ever  ignorant  of  it,  ever  unreceptive  toward  it 
and  so  ever  hateful  of  it,  till  we  come  to  realize  that  truth  of  truths — "  This 
alone  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  Whom  Thou  hast  sent ". 


*  UNBELIEF  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  SIN. 
by   rkv.    b.   l.   whitivian',   d.    d.,   ll.  d., 

Pastor  ok  the  Fifth  Baptist  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

The  profoundest  text  book  in  the  world  on  Psychology  is  one  that  is 
seldom  used,,  either  by  teacher  or  by  pupil.  The  greatest  master  of  the 
human  mind  is  the  last  quoted  in  class  room  or  laboratory.  That  text  book 
is  the  New  Testament,  and  that  master  is  Christ.  We  toss  upon  seas  of 
distraction,  blown  hither  and  thither  by  winds  of  uncertainty  and  reach  no 
haven,  because  we  can  not  get  or  keep  our  course.  We  talk  learnedly  and 
ineffectively  of  doubt  and  illusion  and  hallucination  and  bootless  quest  of 
truth,  because  the  very  conditions  of  truth  are  wanting  in  us.  We  travel 
according  to  the  rules  of  logic,  and  reach,  not  a  conclusion,  but  a  new  and 
still  more  unmanageable  term  in  a  syllogism.  We  search  the  cold  heights 
of  intellect  by  the  colder  light  of  reason,  and  find,  not  a  soul  but  a  phantom. 
We  call  upon  God  and  are  answered  by  the  echo  of  our  own  cry.  We  build 
a  fool's  paradise  and  trip  its  ways  lightly  in  the  dance  of  death,  and  wonder 
why  life  is  not  greater  and  more  beautiful.  And  when  we  seek  escape  from 
our  prison-house  of  folly,  we  follow  ways  that  lead  everywhere  except  to 
freedom.  We  shut  our  eyes  to  evil  and  take  the  road  of  blind  optimism  that 
runs  swiftly  to  the  land  of  disillusionment.  We  shut  our  eyes  to  good  and 
take  the  road  of  blinder  pessimism  that  runs  more  swiftly  still  to  the  abyss 
of  despair.  We  shut  our  eyes  to  fact  altogether,  and  take  the  road  of  skep- 
ticism that  begins  in  one  darkness  and  ends  in  another.  The  way  of  self- 
knowledge  and  self-surrender  we  do  not  take,  and  Christ  says  that  that  is 
the  only  way  that  leads  to  freedom.  Thus  our  problem  remains  unsettled 
and  life  has  no  rest,  because  in  our  search  for  truth  we  pass  truth  by  unrecog- 
nized. 

None  the  less  the  search  for  truth  goes  on.  And  this  is  well.  For 
man's  first  duty  in  a  world  of  reality  is  to  face  the  facts.  Whatever  the 
theoretical  difficulties  of  a  philosophy  of  knowledge,  the  every-day  man 
assumes  that  the  facts  that  concern  his  life  are  worth  knowing  and  that  they 
can  be  known.  Knowledge  is  relative,  no  doubt.  We  know  things  only  as 
they  affect  us.  But  as  long  as  the  only  condition  on  which  a  rational  universe 
can  be  known  at  all  is  the  condition  that  it  shall  keep  faith  with  itself  in  all 
its  parts,  the  values  that  we  find  written  in  the  equations  of  life  must  have 
some  kind  of  consistency  throughout  the  system.  That  which  the  world  is 
to  me  it  must  be  in  its  measure  to  every  being  like  me,  under  like  conditions, 
wherever  found.  And  for  beings  conceivably  unlike  me  and  for  conditions 
different  from  mine,  the  world  must  have  its  meaning,  the  values  still  pro- 


Delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  Januaiy  13,  1904. 

167 


,68  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

portional,  and,  so  far  as  the  other  life  and  mine  have  common  bonds,  con- 
vertible. The  truth  which  to  me  is  matter  of  slow  reasoning  may  be  to 
another  matter  of  intuition.  But  for  me  and  for  that  other  the  truth  is  not 
two  truths  but  one. 

This  is  only  saying  that  the  universe  will  keep  faith  with  us  as  it  keeps 
faith  with  itself.  Limitations  will  still  hedge  us  about,  and  futility  attend 
much  of  our  effort,  but  up  to  the  very  edge  of  our  power  the  whole  universe 
is  ours,  and  what  we  can  compass  we  may  keep.  Faith  is  the  first  great 
note  of  human  sanity,  faith  in  the  honesty  of  the  universe  and  faith  in  one's 
own  honesty  in  dealing  with  the  universe. 

Now  faith  is  only  one  of  an  exceedingly  rich  group  of  words  expressing 
a  disposition  toward  fair  dealing.  Belief,  confidence,  conviction,  assurance, 
trust, — we  could  multiply  the  list  many  times  without  exhausting  the  terms 
properly  belonging  in  it.  And  in  them  all  we  find  the  same  dominant  note. 
It  is  the  note  of  harmony,  and  constantly  assures  us  that  the  universe  and 
we  belong  together.  That  which  I  see  and  hear  and  touch  I  cannot  doubt 
and  live.  And  when  the  facts  are  certified  to  me,  not  by  the  warrant  of  my 
own  senses  but  by  the  senses  of  another,  just  as  far  as  I  have  confidence  in 
that  other  I  accept  his  experience  as  valid  within  the  limits  where  it  may 
properly  apply.  And  when  it  is  no  sense  at  all,  my  own  or  another's,  but  an 
experience  that  has  no  traceable  connection  with  the  senses,  that  brings  me 
the  fact  which  concerns  me  next,  if  the  fact  is  duly  certified  I  shall  not  doubt 
it.  Now  the  data  of  our  mental  and  spiritual  life  though  mediated  by  sense 
are  not  sensible,  for  when  I  have  them  they  are  facts  of  consciousness,  and 
only  more  or  less  elaborate  processes  of  reasoning  tell  us  that  it  is  through 
the  senses  that  certain  of  those  facts  of  consciousness  arise.  Those  processes 
sufficiently  repeated  and  suitably  extended  give  us  our  world.  The  thing 
we  can  never  doubt  and  never  be  rid  of  is  the  fact  of  consciousness.  What 
is  there  is  there.  And  being  there  it  must  be  explained  and  accounted  for. 
To  explain  and  account  for  part  of  these  facts,  we  assume  a  material  world. 
To  explain  and  account  for  another  part  we  assume  a  spiritual  world.  To  get 
the  whole  implication  of  these  worlds  we  are  summoned  to  still  further 
explanation  and  accounting,  and  so  our  universe  or  complete  world  comes 
to  view. 

Conscious  life,  therefore,  is  a  life  of  faith.  I  find  certain  facts  within 
me  which  I  cannot  doubt  if  I  would.  Interrogate  them  I  may,  nay  must. 
Doubt  them  I  neither  do  nor  can.  And  by  a  prodigious  act  of  faith  I  pass 
from  that  world  of  consciousness  to  a  world  of  which  I  know  nothing  except 
as  the  key  to  its  understanding  is  within  me,  and  the  only  warrant  for  whose 
existence  at  all,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  is  my  need  of  it.  This  applies  equally 
to  the  world  of  matter  and  to  the  world  of  spirit.  In  other  words,  the 
universe  itself  is  built  by  faith. 

Of  course  this  does  not  mean  that  the  universe  is  only  a  creation  of  the 
mind.  It  means  that  I  proceed  to  the  knowledge  of  the  universe  by  faith. 
My  universe  is  created  by  faith.  But  this  creation  is  creation  only  as  a 
process  of  personal  experience.     So  far  as  the  universe  itself  is  concerned 


UNBELIEF  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  SIN.  169 

my  creation  is  a  finding.     It  is  there  and  I  get  to  know  it.     But  I  am  sure  of 
it  and  I  can  have  dealings  with  it  on  the  basis  of  faith  and  faith  alone. 

How  shall  we  define  this  process  or  act  of  faith?  By  what  words  can 
we  make  clear  to  ourselves  what  we  mean  when  we  say  we  believe  ?  I 
believe  a  thing  when  I  accept  it  as  real.  Faith,  then,  maybe  defined  as  the 
feeling  of  reality.  It  is  the  assent,  not  of  the  mind  only  but  also  of  the  heart 
and  will,  whatever  there  is  in  the  soul  that  grips.  There  are  many  specific 
outgoings  of  faith,  as  there  are  many  forms  of  reality.  There  is  physical 
reality.  So  sense  perception  has  its  corresponding  feeling  of  reality.  There 
is  intellectual  reality.  So  the  reasoned  conclusion  will  have  its  corresponding 
feeling  of  reality.  There  is  esthetic  reality.  So  the  esthetic  deliverance 
will  have  its  corresponding  feeling  of  reality.  There  is  moral  reality.  So 
determinations  of  good  and  evil  will  have  their  corresponding  feeling  of 
reality.  There  is  a  distinctively  spiritual  world.  So  the  deeper  judgments 
of  the  soul  will  have  their  corresponding  feeling  of  reality.  But  the  feeling 
is  in  essence  one.  It  is  just  the  soul  saying,  "  This  I  find  to  be  true  ".  The 
thing  is  there  and  I  have  dealings  with  it. 

One  caution  should  be  noted.  As  a  purely  subjective  experience  what 
I  find  so  is  so.  But  my  finding  a  thing  so  does  not  make  the  thing  really  so 
in  the  world  that  transcends  purely  personal  experience.  Sometimes  things 
get  into  the  mind  that  get  nowhere  else.  We  are  obliged,  therefore,  more 
or  less  constantly  to  test  the  contents  of  our  mind,  to  make  sure  that  the  reality 
we  think  we  hold  is  real.  Illusion,  delusion,  hallucination,  dream,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  thousand  shapes  the  unsound  brain  will  conjure  into  being,^ — 
these  words  stand  for  subjective  reality  that  has  no  corresponding  reality  in 
the  external  world.  Part  of  the  business  of  every  waking  hour  is  to  make 
sure  that  our  faiths  represent  actual  relations  between  ourselves  and  the 
universe.  The  faith  with  which  we  are  concerned  to-day  is  always  and 
everywhere  the  living  consent  of  the  soul  to  have  commerce  with  reality. 

It  is  hardly  necessary,  but  let  us  say  it,  faith  needs  no  justification. 
We  can  neither  add  to  its  essential  character  nor  take  away  from  it.  It  is. 
And  it  is  what  it  is.  Like  any  other  fact  of  experience  it  has  to  be  taken  as 
it  is  found.  Just  as  the  mind  brings  with  it  the  power  to  know  and  to  feel 
and  to  will,  so  it  brings  with  it  the  power  to  believe.  We  cannot  analyze  it, 
because  it  is  a  simple,  ultimate  mental  fact.  We  cannot  go  behind  it,  be- 
cause it  is  at  the  beginning.  Faith  is  part  of  the  natural  equipment  of  the 
normal  soul. 

And  we  must  not  forget  that  unbelief  may  be  as  legitimate  as  belief. 
The  justification  of  belief  is  the  justification  of  unbelief  no  less.  This  is 
true  whether  by  unbelief  we  mean  the  negation  of  belief  or  positive  dis- 
belief. Let  me  be  bidden  to  believe  something  that  takes  no  hold  upon  my 
life.  The  thing  may  be  true,  but  it  means  nothing  to  me.  There  may  be 
mountains  of  gold  in  the  moon.  I  know  nothing  about  it.  To  me  it  is  not 
a  living  hypothesis.  If  you  ask  me  to  believe  it  notwithstanding  this,  I 
can  only  tell  you  that  I  do  not  believe.  There  is  no  fact  in  my  life  upon 
which  such  a  proposition  takes  hold.     So  with  disbelief.     Let  me  be  assured 


I70  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

that  in  Providence  there  are  men  who  habitually  ignore  the  laws  of  gravity. 
When  they  wish  to  go  from  one  place  to  another  they  do  not  walk  or  ride, 
they  simply  think  of  going  and  they  are  there.  You  tell  me  that  such  men 
may  be  found  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  on  Westminster  Street,  on  Weybosset, 
on  College  Hill.  What  is  my  problem.?  I  cast  about  within  me  for  some 
fact  of  experience  on  which  this  new  fact  can  take  hold.  I  find  none.  More 
than  that,  this  proposed  fact  contradicts  every  fact  of  my  experience,  so  that 
my  entire  life  is  a  protest  against  its  acceptance.  What  shall  I  do  ?  Nothing. 
Yet  that  is  not  quite  what  I  shall  do.  I  shall  do  nothing,  but  I  shall  decide 
that  the  man  who  requires  such  faith  of  me  is  deluded,  unless  I  exercise  the 
right  of  sound  reason  to  set  him  down  as  a  liar.  Believe  I  cannot.  Dis- 
believe I  must. 

What  the  mind  does  is  to  assent  to  what  it  finds.  If  its  outreach  in  any 
direction  ends  in  the  discovery  of  nothing,  there  is  no  call  upon  the  soul  for 
faith.  Belief  is  the  soul's  assent  to  what  it  finds  to  be  there.  The  grounds 
on  which  the  soul  is  satisfied  are  many  and  of  many  kinds.  I  can  find  an 
object  by  my  own  eyes  and  ears  and  hands.  I  can  find  it  by  the  eyes  and 
ears  and  hands  of  another.  I  can  find  it  without  eyes  and  ears  and  hands, 
my  own  or  another's,  by  signs  which  eyes  and  ears  and  hands  can  neither 
take  nor  interpret.  But  whenever  and  however  found,  reality  duly  certified 
by  relation  to  the  unquestionable  facts  of  consciousness  calls  for  assent  in 
living  terms.  The  character  of  the  response  will  bear  some  ratio  in  form 
and  value  to  the  reality  with  which  one  enters  into  relation.  If  I  believe 
that  two  and  two  make  four,  I  will  make  my  reckonings  accordingly.  If  I 
believe  that  man  is  mortal,  I  will  make  my  plans  accordingly.  If  I  believe 
that  woolen  is  fitter  material  for  clothing  in  winter  than  silk  or  cotton,  I  will 
dress  for  the  cold  in  woolen.  If  I  believe  that  a  certain  course  of  business 
procedure  is  profitable,  I  will  follow  that  course.  If  I  believe  that  it  is 
better  to  be  well  than  sick,  I  will  seek  health.  If  I  believe  that  it  is  my  duty 
to  think  of  others  rather  than  of  myself,  I  will  think  of  others  before  I  think 
of  myself.  If  I  believe  in  God,  I  will  serve  and  worship  Him.  What  a  man 
assents  to  and  accepts  as  real,  shapes  his  life.  For  good  or  for  evil,  belief 
determines  conduct.  Not  what  a  man  calls  his  belief,  but  his  real  belief 
shapes  his  life. 

The  thing  that  is  natural  and  right  for  the  normal  man  is  what  the 
normal  man  will  do.  But  in  the  face  of  all  that  is  natural  and  right  we  find 
men  failing  to  do  what  normal  life  requires.  Here  is  a  man  to  whom  reason 
opens  the  way  of  honor  and  profit,  and  instead  of  taking  that  way  the  man 
walks  straight  to  uncleanness  and  poverty.  Here  is  a  man  who  knows  where 
duty  lies,  and  he  turns  to  the  end  of  the  world  that  lies  farthest  from  duty. 
Here  are  arguments  that  cannot  be  gainsaid  or  denied,  and  yet  they  fall 
unheeded.  Here  is  a  world  that  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  explanation 
of  the  world  in  which  men  live,  and  behold  men  treat  it  as  less  than  a  name. 
What  is  the  result  "i  Disorder  in  the  whole  life  in  proportion  to  the  violation 
of  the  fundamental  demand  of  reason,  that  belief  shall  respond  to  fact  duly 
certified  and  properly  presented.     The  failures  of  which  we  now  speak  are 


UNBELIEF  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  SIN.  171 

so  many  cases  of  refusal  to  keep  faith  with  the  universe.  This  should  be 
impossible.  Were  it  not  for  the  awful  power  of  the  human  will  to  shape  its 
own  ways  it  would  be  impossible.  But  the  naked  fact  stands,  that  of  several 
possible  courses  I  myself  determine  which  I  shall  follow  :  throwing  the 
weight  of  desire  upon  the  side  of  this  course  as  against  that,  recalling  the 
decision  on  the  point  of  execution,  appealing  to  conscience  or  some  obliga- 
tion that  just  now  suddenly  is  seen  to  be  precious,  swaying,  shaping,  mould- 
ing, finally  deciding  beyond  recall  the  path  I  shall  take.  I  cannot  explain 
how  this  is  done.  I  simply  find  myself  doing  it,  falling  or  rising  by  the 
decision.  So,  close  by  the  glory  of  life  we  find  life's  shame.  In  response 
to  the  fundamental  demand  of  reason  we  find  a  thorough-going  violation  of 
the  order  of  the  universe.  At  the  very  point  where  faith  should  be  final  and 
complete,  we  find  faith  broken  or  reversed  altogether.  It  is  a  monstrous 
thing.  For  if  it  is  a  wrong  to  the  soul  to  believe  without  evidence,  to  believe 
against  evidence  is  a  crime  against  the  universe. 

How  is  this  monstrous  thing  possible  ?  That  which  should  be  impossible 
is  not  impossible,  as  a  thousand  bitter  experiences  show.  I  see  the  better. 
I  see  it  to  be  the  better.  I  approve  it  as  the  better.  I  follow  the  worse. 
So  the  unnatural  thing  is  done.  But  how  can  we  refuse  to  decide  by  the 
evidence  t  The  answer  must  lie  in  some  kind  of  mental  and  moral  disorder. 
One  has  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  there  are  many  forms  of  reality. 
There  is  a  world  of  flesh  as  well  as  a  world  of  spirit.  The  experiences  of 
the  flesh  are  real  as  truly,  if  not  as  permanently,  as  those  of  the  spirit.  And 
in  experience  we  find  many  elements  which,  though  not  real  in  valid  sense, 
have  the  appearance  of  reality.  Error  consists  in  the  acceptance  of  the 
invalid  for  the  valid.  It  is  possible  for  such  acceptance  to  be  so  often 
repeated  that  practical  reversal  of  normal  conditions  of  life  takes  place. 
Thus  what  at  first  looks  like  mere  intellectual  and  moral  revolt  turns  out  to 
be  mental  and  moral  dislocation.  Lives  helplessly  halt  and  blind  and 
withered  go  stumbling  along  the  world's  highway,  some  of  them  crying  out 
for  help,  some,  perhaps  most,  neither  crying  nor  caring  for  help. 

We  are  standing  face  to  face  with  the  inscrutable  mystery  of  life  set  to 
evil.  The  fact  of  such  life  is  only  too  apparent.  The  world  is  full  of  it,  our 
world  and  the  great  world  of  men.  Intemperate  men,  impure  men,  dishon- 
est men,  deceitful  men,  cruel  men,  bad  men  of  every  kind  live  their  evil  life 
and  find  all  the  happiness  they  find  at  all  in  fleshly  courses.  And  the  world 
lends  itself  to  evil  uses  apparently  with  as  little  reluctance  as  it  does  to 
good.  The  fact  is,  that  what  we  call  evil  and  good  take  on  their  character 
as  evil  and  good  only  when  touched  and  determined  by  will.  The  world  is 
the  great  field  in  which  the  dove  finds  grain  and  the  vulture  finds  carrion. 
What  one  takes  to  the  world  determines  what  one  takes  from  the  world. 
The  great  question  concerns,  not  grain  and  carrion,  but  dove  and  vulture. 
At  bottom  the  question  of  life  is  a  question,  not  of  things  but  of  people. 
And  the  set  of  life  toward  the  worse  is  what  we  mean  by  the  evil  will.  It  is 
the  identification  of  self  with  the  lower,  the  coarser,  the  worse  elements  of 
the  world. 


172  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

But  every  mental  act  does  more  than  bring  itself  to  pass.  It  sets  into 
effect  certain  influences  in  the  outer  world.  It  bears  certain  fruit  in  the 
world  of  the  soul.  It  is  with  the  inner  world  that  we  are  concerned  just 
now.  A  choice  often  repeated  becomes  the  permanent  choice.  The  act 
often  repeated  becomes  the  habit,  the  settled  course  of  life.  So  we  are  con- 
stantly making  and  unmaking  ourselves.  Suppose  that  the  tendency  toward 
evil  that  manifests  itself  in  the  evil  will  gets  reinforcement  from  the  daily 
choice.  The  effect  is  seen  in  daily  hardening  of  habit  toward  a  fixed  state 
of  evil.  So  every  choice  in  a  given  direction  makes  more  inevitable  later 
choice  in  that  direction,  till  presently  no  other  direction  is  thought  of  or 
desired.  How  far  may  this  hardening  go  ?  Milton  puts  into  the  mouth  of 
Satan  the  awful  words,  "  Evil,  be  thou  my  good."  In  such  a  case  the  pro- 
cess goes  so  far  as  to  reach  complete  reversal  of  values. 

Is  the  choice  of  Satan  psychologically  possible  ?  A  thousand  cases  of 
like  choice,  though  perhaps  less  fixed  and  less  confessed,  make  answer, 
yes.  Ambition,  lust,  avarice,  jealousy,  envy,  hate  fill  the  breast  with  seeth- 
ing passion,  till  the  very  life  is  hell.  "  Which  way  I  fly  is  hell,  myself  am 
hell ".  Not  simply  Satan  on  his  throne  says  that,  but  multitudes  of  men 
who  have  no  throne,  but  who  do  Satan's  work  and  live  his  life  in  acknowl- 
edged or  unacknowledged  fellowship  with  him.  The  fact  is  central  to  life, 
that  evil  choice  repeated  makes  further  evil  choice  probable,  till  no  other 
choice  is  possible. 

And  yet,  responsibility  cannot  be  disclaimed.  If  the  choice  has 
become  inevitable,  how  can  one  be  held  accountable  for  it  ?  Well  may  a 
man  say,  when  caught  in  the  grip  of  the  evil  will,  "  I  could  not  choose 
otherwise  than  as  I  chose  in  this  ".  Truer  confession  than  that,  lips  never 
made.  The  man  could  not  have  chosen  otherwise  than  as  he  did.  But  the 
inevitableness  of  that  choice  lay  in  earlier  choices.  Back  and  back  and 
back  we  press  until  we  reach  a  point  in  the  man's  life  where  other  choice 
was  possible.  Then,  under  the  influence  of  passion  or  ignorance  or 
unworthy  motive,  the  man  turned  from  the  better  way.  There  in  the 
choice  of  the  worse  was  the  beginning  of  the  way  whose  end  is  this  bond- 
age to  evil.  And  the  man  cannot  disclaim  responsibility  for  the  result. 
For  choice  is  nothing  but  the  soul  taking  the  portion  that  seems  to  it 
good.  Will  is  only  the  soul  set  to  accomplish  the  purpose  the  soul  has  set 
for  itself.  When  we  do  ill  we  are  not  thrust  into  the  ill  by  a  fate  that  com- 
pels us  so  to  cast  ourselves  away.  The  only  fate  that  can  touch  a  man  to 
make  or  mar  him  is  himself.  What  the  machinery  of  the  universe  does  is 
to  weave  the  choice  of  the  hour  into  the  fabric  of  life.  The  doctrine  of 
fate  is  no  myth,  but  God's  truth  plainly  spoken.  Only,  man's  fate  is  the 
fixing  of  man's  choice,  the  projection  of  himself  upon  eternity.  For  what 
he  is,  therefore,  at  a  given  hour,  the  man  must  hold  himself  accountable, 
and  himself  alone.  In  that  hour  he  can  no  longer  help  being  what  he  is, 
but  what  made  him  what  he  is  in  that  hour  was  his  own  choice,  deliberate 
or  indifferent.     The  web  of  life  is  of  our  own  weaving. 

The  natural  history  of  the  evil  will  helps  us  to  understand  why  the 


UNBELIEF  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  SIN  173 

requirements  of  righteousness  are  so  unwelcome  to  the  man  who  has  cast 
in  his  lot  with  unrighteousness.  The  set  of  life  toward  the  worse  reveals 
two  worlds  within  the  great  world.  In  one  world  is  all  that  we  call  good. 
In  the  other  is  all  that  we  call  evil.  There  is  a  distinct  type  of  life  for  each  of 
these  worlds.  By  his  conformity  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  two  types  a  man 
declares  his  fellowship.  Jesus  throws  this  conformity  into  the  striking  terms 
of  family  fellowship.  "  I  am  of  My  Father  God.  You  are  of  your  father 
the  devil.  What  I  see  My  Father  do  I  do.  What  you  see  your  father  do 
you  do  ".  And  as  the  family  life  of  God  is  good,  the  life  of  those  who  share 
the  family  fellowship  with  God  will  be  good.  As  the  family  life  of  the  devil 
is  bad,  those  who  share  the  family  fellowship  of  the  devil  will  be  bad.  And 
as  there  is  nothing  in  common  between  the  two  families,  the  life  of  each 
cannot  but  seem  unbeautiful  to  the  other.  Jesus  says  plainly  that  the 
opposition  He  had  to  meet  was  due  to  something  other  than  dislike  of  Him. 
It  was  want  of  understanding  of  the  things  with  which  His  life  was  filled. 
And  those  who  did  not  understand  did  more  than  fail  to  understand :  they 
misunderstood.  They  could  nor.  see  what  Jesus  saw  or  hear  what  Jesus 
heard  because  their  w-hole  life  belonged  in  a  different  sphere  from  His. 
When  the  sense  of  the  divine  has  gone  out  of  the  life  no  work  will  seem 
divine.  For  those  who  do  not  know  God  the  word  of  Jesus  can  have  no 
meaning  as  the  word  of  God.  To  those  who  have  shut  heaven  out  of  the 
life  the  very  condition  by  which  a  revelation  can  be  understood  is  wanting. 
By  that  test  Jesus  at  once  tried  and  condemned  the  men  of  His  day.  "If 
any  man  w-illeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be 
of  God  or  whether  I  speak  of  Myself  ".  "I  speak  the  things  which  I  have 
seen  with  My  Father,  and  ye  also  do  the  things  which  ye  have  heard  with 
your  father.  Ye  do  the  works  of  your  father.  If  God  were  your  father,  ye 
would  love  Me,  for  I  came  forth  and  am  come  from  God ;  for  neither  have 
I  come  of  Myself,  but  He  sent  Me.  Why  do  ye  not  understand  My  speech  ? 
Even  because  ye  cannot  hear  My  word.  Ye  are  of  your  father  the  devil, 
and  the  lusts  of  your  father  it  is  your  will  to  do.  He  was  a  murderer  from 
the  beginning,  and  stood  not  in  the  truth,  because  there  is  no  truth  in  him. 
When  he  speaketh  a  lie  he  speaketh  of  his  own ;  for  he  is  a  liar  and  the 
father  thereof.  But  because  I  say  the  truth  ye  believe  Me  not,  because  ye 
are  not  of  God  ". 

The  attitude  of  a  given  moment  is  predetermined.  The  slow  setting 
of  Ufe  toward  good  or  toward  evil  goes  into  it.  One's  total  belief  is  engaged 
in  the  decision  of  a  given  question.  My  entire  relation  to  party  and  country 
and  race  makes  practically  certain  beforehand  what  I  shall  think  of  the  new 
special  political  problem.  My  entire  religious  experience  is  involved  in  the 
answer  to  the  new  religious  question,  making  it  possible  for  any  one  who 
knows  me  thoroughly  to  feel  sure  in  advance  what  that  answer  will  be.  As 
soon  as  one  knows  the  family  history  of  the  men  to  whom  Jesus  speaks,  one 
may  be  confident  of  the  response  they  will  make  to  the  divine  demand. 
For  they  are  men  whom  selfishness  has  blinded  till  their  understanding  is 
darkened,  and  their  judgment  gone  utterly  astray.     The  best  outline  of  the 


174  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

history  of  human  error  ever  written  is  in  the  first  chapter  of  Romans.  Men 
committed  the  sin  of  unclear  judgment,  with  the  result  that  succeeding 
judgment  became  less  and  less  clear,  till  complete  reversals  of  value  were 
inevitable,  and  life  took  on  a  new  and  strange  character.  "Professing 
themselves  to  be  wise,  they  became  fools  and  changed  the  glory  of  the 
incorruptible  God  for  the  likeness  of  an  image  of  corruptible  man  and  of 
four-footed  beasts  and  .creeping  things ".  The  mystery  of  the  power  of 
choice  remains,  and  the  greater  mystery  of  the  use  of  that  power  unworthily. 
What  the  apostle  shows  is  simply  the  movement  of  man's  mind  in  the  pro- 
cess of  his  undoing.  Bad  grows  to  worse.  "  Wherefore  God  gave  them  up 
in  the  lusts  of  their  hearts  unto  uncleanness :  for  that  they  exchanged  the 
truth  of  God  for  a  lie  and  worshipped  and  served  the  creature  rather  than 
the  Creator".  Worse  grows  to  worst,  "Even  as  they  refused  to  have 
God  in  their  knowledge,  God  gave  them  up  to  a  reprobate  mind,  to  do  those 
things  which  are  not  convenient ;  being  filled  with  all  unrighteousness,  wick- 
edness, covetousness,  maliciousness  ;  full  of  envy,  murder,  strife,  deceit, 
malignity ;  whisperers,  back-biters,  hateful  to  God,  insolent,  haughty,  boast- 
ful, inventors  of  evil  things,  disobedient  to  parents,  without  understanding, 
covenant  breakers,  without  natural  affection,  unmerciful :  who,  knowing  the 
ordinance  of  God  that  they  which  practice  such  things  are  worthy  of  death, 
not  only  do  the  same,  but  also  consent  with  those  who  practice  them  ". 
There  is  little  need  of  seeking  further  for  an  explanation  of  the  judgment 
that  lacks  judgment  and  the  life  that  is  death.  Mind  and  heart  and  will  are 
grouped  together.  And  the  awful  fact  is  that  this  outworking  is  only  an 
outworking.  What  men  do  they  do  themselves.  In  this  blackest  picture 
ever  painted  the  central  fact  is  man's  own  choice  of  evil.  God  let  them  go 
their  way.  The  evil  they  thought  and  wrought  to  their  undoing  was  their 
own. 

To  men  who  have  thus  chosen,  the  divine  demand  is  an  impossible 
demand.  Self-centered,  self-sufficient,  self-seeking — what  answer  can  a 
man  make  to  the  demand  of  self-surrender  ?  For  the  call  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  is  precisely  that.  As  Professor  Flint  so  well  says  of  Christian  faith, 
"  It  is  a  self-surrender,  an  acceptance  of  Christ  as  of  God  made  wisdom, 
righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption  unto  us ;  a  supreme  trust  in 
Christ  based  on  a  distinctive  conviction  as  to  His  character  and  His  rela- 
tionship both  to  God  and  man  ".  The  attitude  of  the  wilful  life  toward  such 
a  demand  is  not  hard  to  name.  Failure  to  accept  is  not  so  much  failure  as 
refusal.  The  mood  of  such  a  life  is  not  defect  but  defiance.  Alienation  of 
mind  ends  always  in  hostility  of  will. 

When  once  the  principle  of  the  life  is  fixed  every  experience  is  a  confir- 
mation of  it.  So  the  world  becomes  a  mighty  instrument  of  good  or  evil, 
according  to  the  life  it  touches.  The  sun  shining  upon  a  healthy  tree 
means  life  and  ever  more  life.  Upon  a  dead  tree  the  shining  means  com- 
pleter death.  Rain  floods  the  foliage  with  fresh  greenness.  The  fallen 
leaves  it  turns  into  a  sodden  mass.  Life  and  death  are  not  in  the  sun  and 
rain,  but  in  that  on  which  they  fall.     It  is  within  ourselves  that  we  shall  find 


UNBELIEF  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  SIN.  175 

the  sentence  of  life  and  death.  When  the  spirit  fell  at  Pentecost,  to  some 
of  the  lookers-on  the  marvel  seemed  a  serious  thing  and  they  questioned, 
saying,  "  What  meaneth  this  ?  "  To  others  it  was  matter  of  mockery,  and 
they  said,  "  They  are  full  of  new  wine  ".  So  the  history  of  the  truth  runs  in 
all  times  and  places  in  them  that  are  being  saved  and  in  them  that  are  per- 
ishing :  to  the  one  the  savor  from  death  unto  death ;  to  the  other  the  savor 
of  life  unto  life.  The  life  of  God  Himself  is  deeper  death  to  the  soul  that 
closes  itself  against  that  life. 

What  is  the  central  principle  of  the  unbelieving  life  ?  Its  root  and 
bloom  and  fruit  are  one.  And  that  one  is  self.  It  begins  in  self.  It 
matures  in  self — thinking  self,  feeling  self,  willing  self.  It  ends  in  self. 
The  heart  of  unbelief  is  selfishness.  All  else  follows  as  a  matter  of  course, 
want  of  sympathy,  separation,  opposition,  revolt,  open  warfare.  What  is 
the  use  of  specifying  the  multitudinous  acts  of  sin  when  we  have  the  princi- 
ple of  sin  ?  Why  count  the  branches  one  by  one  when  the  pledge  of  them 
all  is  in  the  root,  and  we  have  the  root  ?  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  the 
things  that  defile,  and  when  we  have  the  heart  we  have  all  that  the  heart 
makes  sure.  Men  reject  Christ  because  they  have  nothing  in  common  with 
Him.  Their  unbelief  is  simply  their  unlikeness  finding  expression  in  speech 
and  deed. 

But  why  keep  citing  rejection  of  Christ,  as  if  that  were  a  special  proof 
of  unbelief  ?  Because  it  is  a  special  proof  of  unbelief.  The  spirit  and  the 
words  and  the  works  of  Jesus  were  divine.  They  were  the  spirit  and  words 
and  works  of  God.  To  know  Jesus  was  to  know  God.  Not  to  see  God  in 
the  life  of  Jesus  was  to  show  oneself  incapable  of  seeing  Him  anywhere. 
Over  and  over  Jesus  said,  "  Believe  Me.  But  if  you  cannot  yet  believe  Me, 
look  at  My  works  and  believe  what  they  say ".  The  works  of  God  can 
come  only  from  the  life  of  God.  The  character  of  the  works  of  Jesus  was 
not  doubted,  even  by  those  who  hated  the  spirit  by  which  they  were 
wrought.  That  was  the  blasphemy  which  the  judgment  of  God  smote  back 
upon  the  very  lips  of  denial :  insistence  by  men  who  knew  better,  that  the 
divine  work  before  their  eyes  was  the  work  of  the  devil.  But  that  was  only 
the  crowning  denial,  the  full-voiced  unbelief  that  did  not  shrink  even  from 
charging  a  lie  upon  the  holiness  of  God.  If  that  is  not  itself  always  the 
unpardonable  sin,  it  is  a  sin  that  joins  hands  with  the  unpardonable  sin. 

The  rejection  of  Christ  is  only  less  vital.  As  long  as  there  is  possibil- 
ity of  recognizing  sin  at  all,  the  rejection  of  Christ  will  be  recognized  as 
sin.  The  men  to  whom  the  Spirit  of  God  brings  home  conviction  of  sin  find 
their  quickened  consciences  responding  most  readily  at  that  very  point,  as 
at  last  they  see  that  all  the  while  God  has  been  looking  upon  them  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  though  they  may  have  been  slow  to  acknowledge 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  sin  in  the  world,  when  once  they  realize  what 
Jesus  Christ  means  to  the  world  they  must  say,  "  Here  at  last  is  something 
that  is  unmistakably  evil,  my  denial  of  the  right  of  Jesus  Christ  to  my  life  ". 
And  in  that  evil  lies  the  secret  of  all  other  evils  that  reveal  in  human  life 
alienation  from  the  mind  of  God  and  hostility  to  His  will.  Unbelief  is  the 
fundamental  sin,  the  root  from  which  every  specific  sin  draws  its  life. 


176  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

And  this  is  a  teaching  to  take  hold  of  the  life  of  our  own  day.  It 
belongs  not  simply  to  a  far-off  time  and  people  but  to  the  present  and  to  us. 
The  claims  of  Jesus  Christ  are  as  direct  today  as  ever.  The  life  of  God  is 
as  real  as  ever.  "And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  should  know  Thee,  the 
only  true  God,  and  Him  Whom  Thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ  ". 


*  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS  THROUGH  THE  DOING 
OF  THE  WILL  OF  GOD. 

Pastor  of  the  New   York  Avenue  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Brooklyn, 

N.  V. 

"  If  any  man  willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching  whether  it  be  of 
God  or  whether  I  speak  of  Myself  ".    (St.  John  7: 17 — R.  V.) 

Perhaps  the  best  way  of  approach  to  an  understanding  of  this  passage 
is  to  take  the  words  in  their  apparently  simple  and  obvious  intent.  The 
easy  and  natural  interpretation  of  the  verse  would  be  something  as  follows : 
If  any  man  deliberately  sets  his  will  toward  right  doing  he  will  have  little 
difficulty  in  realizing  the  essential  divineness  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Knowledge  arises  out  of  deed.  Let  a  man  come  to  the  words  of  Jesus  with 
a  deliberate  intention  to  realize  in  his  activity  the  highest  kind  of  life,  and 
he  will  find  in  the  teaching  of  the  Master  a  satisfaction  which  will  convince 
him  of  the  truth  of  the  teaching.  With  continued  doing  of  the  Divine  Will 
set  forth  in  the  revelation  of  Jesus  there  will  come  an  increasingly  solid 
deposit  of  conviction  as  to  the  truth  of  that  revelation.  We  all  know  what 
it  is  to  set  the  will  firmly  in  devotion  to  right  doing;  we  all  know  too  what 
it  is  to  know  truth, — to  rest  in  the  conviction  that  the  deep  satisfaction 
which  a  thought  brings  is  a  warrant  for  holding  the  thought  as  true.  We  all 
know,  further,  how  this  satisfaction  comes  out  of  experience  in  the  practice 
of  the  truth.  As  the  practice  of  the  truth  brings  increased  and  deepened 
satisfaction,  we  attain  to  a  certainty  and  immediacy  of  conviction  which 
nothing  can  shake.  This  is  what  one  coming  to  an  interpretation  of  the  text 
with  experience  in  the  search  for  certainty  as  to  truth  in  real  life  would  make 
out  of  the  statement  of  Jesus.  Such  a  one  might  put  his  thought  into  finer 
expression,  but  his  conclusion  would  be  substantially  that  here  given. 

Jesus  enforced  as  no  other  has  ever  done  the  thought  that  God  is  a 
person  of  moral  quality— of  highest  and  holiest  righteousness.  This  con- 
ception is  in  one  form  or  another  probably  at  the  bottom  of  most  doing  of 
the  will  of  God.  Let  now  a  man  determined  to  do  the  will  of  God  hear  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  character  of  God.  Will  he  not  at  once 
recognize  the  teaching  as  the  goal  for  which  his  soul  has  been  seeking? 
Suppose  that  he  goes  forward  in  his  righteous  doing  with  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  definitely  in  mind.  Is  it  not  inconceivable  that  there  should  be  any 
other  result  than  a  deepening  conviction  as  to  the  truth  of  what  Jesus  has 
taught  ?     Or  take  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to  the  essential  dignity  and  worthi- 


•  Delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  January  13,  1904. 

177 


178  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ness  of  humanity.  Can  there  be  better  preparation  for  the  full  reception  of 
this  truth  than  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God,  and  if  the  life  be  constantly 
ordered  with  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to  the  eternal  worth  of  the  moral  will 
constantly  before  the  mind,  is  it  not  inevitable  that  the  soul  should  come  to 
a  settled  conviction  as  to  its  own  eternal  value  in  the  moral  universe  ?  Will 
not  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God  make  the  attitude  of  Jesus  toward  sin  seem 
the  one  true  attitude  ?  Will  not  the  reliance  upon  Jesus  for  spiritual  life  by 
one  who  is  earnestly  seeking  to  do  right  bring  an  assurance  deep  and  stead- 
fast as  to  the  truth  of  the  Master's  claim  to  be  a  veritable  center  of  life-giving 
forces  ?  If  Christ  is  taken  as  king  in  the  realm  of  right  doing,  He  will  prove 
by  the  actual  results  in  the  increased  spiritual  power  of  His  followers  that 
He  is  what  He  claims  to  be.  The  appeal  is  to  life, — the  same  appeal  that 
we  make  in  the  case  of  any  claim, — the  appeal  to  success.  Can  the  claim 
make  itself  good?  The  final  test  of  truth  is  just  the  satisfaction  we  attain 
as  we  think  the  truth.  If  the  mind  is  at  rest  as  it  contemplates  a  revelation, 
the  revelation  is  held  to  be  true.  Jesus  did  not  come  to  set  forth  mere 
statements  of  facts;  He  came  to  reveal  and  enforce  certain  truths.  The 
test  of  these  truths  is  in  the  feeling  of  spiritual  satisfaction  which  they  bring. 
The  doing  of  the  will  of  God, — the  taking  of  Jesus  at  His  word  and  the 
practice  of  His  revelation  as  a  matter  of  moral  doing  will  beget  in  the  heart 
of  the  doer  the  satisfaction  which  is  the  real  and  vital  witness. 

This  would  seem  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  passage  to  one  who  should 
read  it  for  its  clear  and  plain  intent.  This  natural  interpretation  must  be 
allowed  to  stand  if  there  is  no  good  reason  for  going  behind  it.  Jesus  did 
not  make  hidden  enigmas  of  statements  like  this.  He  spoke  the  language 
of  real  life,  and  while  He  loaded  His  words  with  a  significance  which  eternity 
cannot  exhaust,  He  no  doubt  intended  us  to  start  with  the  simple  significance 
which  lies  upon  the  surface. 

There  are  some,  however,  who  might  grant  a  measure  of  consent  to  this 
general  statement  who  would  nevertheless  insist  that  it  gives  not  quite  the 
right  ground  for  religious  certainty. 

First  among  the  objectors  might  be  put  those  who  hold  that  no  inner 
assurance  is  necessarily  a  part  of  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 
For  example,  an  intelligent  friend  of  mine  recently  attended  an  inquirer's 
service  held  by  a  reputable  and  responsible  clergyman  in  a  neighboring  city. 
The  issue  up  for  illumination  was  just  this  matter  of  Christian  certainty. 
"  How  can  I  know  the  truth  to  be  the  truth  "  was  the  question  of  seeker  after 
seeker.  The  response  was  stereotyped  :  "  We  know  that  this  is  true  because 
the  Bible  says  so".  Some  of  these  questions  had  to  do  with  inner  and  vital 
experience.  "  What  ground  have  we  for  believing  that  we  are  sons  of  God  ? " 
The  answer  was:  "  Have  you  complied  with  the  Biblical  conditions  so  far 
as  you  know  ?  If  you  have,  you  are  His  sons  simply  because  the  Bible  says 
so.  This  is  not  a  matter  primarily  of  inner  satisfaction.  It  is  a  matter  of 
taking  the  word  of  God  as  true,  no  matter  whether  there  be  any  mental  rest 
or  not ".  The  point  is  clear.  This  clergyman  did  what  many  others  have 
been  doing  from  the  beginning.    He  found  the  ground  for  rehgious  certainty 


KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS.  179 

in  the  appeal  to  an  external  authority.  The  appeal  to  the  authority  settles 
all.     There  is  no  further  need  of  argument. 

The  truth  of  this  putting  all  are  willing  to  concede.  If  a  seeker  has 
become  almost  morbid  through  introspective  search  after  some  mysterious 
sign,  no  better  advice  could  be  given  him  tlian  this  encouragement  to  take 
the  word  of  an  external  authority.  Moreover,  for  very  many,  or  for 
all  of  us  during  certain  stages  of  experience,  there  must  be  this  re- 
liance upon  authority  apart  from  any  response  of  inner  satisfaction.  In 
one  form  or  another  the  authoritative  deliverance  by  the  church,  or  the 
parent,  or  the  teacher,  or  the  Book,  must  play  the  decisive  part  in  the 
religious  experience  of  immaturity.  All  these  forms  of  authoritative 
utterance  get  their  force,  however,  from  the  fact  that  out  of  centuries  of 
Christian  doing  has  come  a  race-wide  and  heart-deep  satisfaction  which 
lends  inevitable  momentum  to  the  utterance.  The  Bible  is  believed  not 
because  of  its  being  an  external  authority  settling  questions  by  lawyer-like 
dogmatism.  It  is  received  because  centuries  of  Christian  doing  have 
resulted  in  satisfaction  deep  and  abiding.  It  rests  not  upon  bodies  of 
evidence  of  a  merely  historical  and  critical  kind.  If  the  revelation  were 
merely  the  utterance  of  an  external  authority  no  one  would  trouble  himself 
with  it  long  enough  to  ask  about  evidences. 

Another  objector  declares  that  Christian  certainty  is  not  to  be  likened 
to  our  feeling  of  satisfaction  as  we  become  convinced  of  any  other  truth. 
He  tells  us  that  Christian  certainty  is  a  matter  altogether  apart  from  any 
other  kind  of  certainty.  If  not  altogether  a  miraculous  revelation  it  stands 
aloof  from  the  ordinary  experiences  of  the  mental  life.  It  is  a  peculiar 
assurance  which  we  recognize  at  once  as  coming  from  the  divine  spirit.  It 
is  a  veritable  witness  of  the  Spirit  and  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  any 
lower  order  of  knowing  whatsoever.  If  we  would  know  God  we  must  have 
moments  of  rapt  exaltation  when  we  see  things  hidden  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world. 

Here  too  there  is  a  measure  of  truth.  If  it  is  possible  for  the  soul  to  be 
completely  transported  by  its  enthusiasm  for  earthly  objects,  it  is  altogether 
unreasonable  not  to  allow  the  same  transports  of  enthusiasm  for  divine 
objects.  If  love  for  a  friend  or  for  a  country  produces  mountain-top 
experiences,  from  which  we  learn  more  than  from  months  of  living  at  the 
lower  levels,  it  is  perfectly  possible  to  have  like  moments  of  illumination  as 
to  the  things  of  God.  But  there  is  nothing  essentially  miraculous  about 
these  experiences.  So  far  as  they  have  value  in  any  case  they  come  out  of 
the  solid  devotion  which  manifests  itself  in  doing.  If  the  ecstasy  over  friend, 
or  country,  or  God,  comes  not  out  of  doing  the  will  of  country,  or  friend,  or 
God,  it  has  but  little  value.  Let  a  man  give  himself  to  the  real  doing  of 
the  will  of  the  Father  and  the  firm  conviction  that  he  is  on  the  path  of  life, 
may,  in  particular  circumstances,  rise  to  bursts  of  enthusiastic  delight. 
But  underneath  all  this  is  the  rock  basis  of  ethical,  spiritual  devotion.  Out 
of  this  the  knowledge  comes.  And  whether  the  knowledge  ever  rises  to 
the  exalted  plane  or  not,  there  will  be  for  the  doer  of  the  will  of  God  steady 
satisfaction  of  settled  conviction. 


j8o  the  gospel  of  ST.  JOHN. 

Still  another  objector  comes  forward.  He  is  evidently  much  impressed 
ty  the  strictly  scientific  character  of  the  day  in  which  we  live  and  tells  us 
that  this  word  of  the  Master  is  clearly  an  appeal  to  a  strictly  scientific  test. 
If  we  wish  to  know  Christian  truth  let  us  put  it  to  a  test  of  experiment  just 
as  the  worker  in  the  laboratory  puts  his  discoveries  to  the  test  of  experi- 
ment. 

The  objector  has  evidently  overlooked  the  distinction  between  matters 
of  truth  on  the  one  hand  and  matters  of  objective  fact  on  the  other.     The 
body  of  Christ's  teaching  is  not  a  body  of  scientific  facts.     It  is  a  setting 
forth  of  truths.      Truths   are   not   so   much   for   detailed  verification    by 
laboratory  experiment  as  for  the  proof  which  comes   as  they  show  their 
wearing  qualities  in  the  doubts  and  stresses  which  are  so  frequent  in  actual 
life.     Yet  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  has  just  as  scientific  foundation  as  do 
those  general  conceptions  which  underlie  scientific  discovery.     For  these, 
too,  are  matters  of  belief  and  faith.     They  are  the  product  of  atmosphere 
and  the  general  conditions  which  have  been  thrown  around  the  mind.    The 
work  of  the  experimenter  is  in  large  part  done  before  the  test  is  made 
in   the   laboratory.      It   has  been   done   in   the    shaping    of    the   general 
conceptions  which  underlie  all  scientific  procedure.     It  has  been  done  in 
the  scientific  tendency  given  to  the  experimenter's  mind.     On  last  analysis 
it  would  be  found  that  this  means  that  the  experimenter  has  for  years  been 
holding  certain  general  conceptions  which  have  been  capable  of  no  further 
proof  than  the  satisfaction  which  they  give  to  the  mind  as  it  conducts  its 
activities.     Even  the  belief  in  "  evolution  "  which  is  made  so  much  of  in 
these  days  rests  not  so  completely  upon  this  or  that  body  of  demonstrated 
fact  as  upon  the  general  satisfaction  which  the  thought  gives  the  mind. 
The   scientific  investigator  does  not  today  lay  much  stress    upon  apriori 
methods,  but  he  is  an  apriorist  nevertheless.     He  may  not  be  an  apriorist 
in  the  sense  that  he  holds  to  hard  and  fast  statements  of  principle  which 
are  to  guide  his  discoveries,  but  the  principles  are  in  his  thought  neverthe- 
less in  the  shape  of  certain  expectations  and  tendencies  and  inner  tests  of 
satisfaction  which  really  determine — if  not  what  he  shall  find — at  least  the 
emphasis  he  shall  put  upon  what  he  finds. 

So  then  we  feel  all  the  more  inclined  to  hold  fast  the  natural  reading  of 
the  passage  of  this  book  of  John  concerning  the  knowledge  of  the  truth 
through  doing  the  will  of  God.  The  passage  means  that  as  we  do  the  will 
of  God  there  comes  into  our  minds  an  increasing  and  solid  deposit  of 
conviction  that  we  are  upon  the  side  of  the  truth  in  holding  what  Christ  has 
brought  us.  The  conviction  may  be  that  indefinable  something  which  we 
ordinarily  have  in  mind  when  we  use  the  word  about  any  matter  of  belief,  or  it 
may  rise  at  times  into  something  more  definite,  even  the  transport  of  an 
overwhelming  enthusiasm.  But  in  any  case  we  have  the  heart  of  the  truth 
when  we  say  that  Jesus  meant  just  this,  that  out  of  Christian  doing  there 
comes  increasing  assurance  as  to  the  truth  which  Jesus  taught.  While  we 
would  not  care  to  bring  the  teaching  to  the  test  of  this  or  that  particular 
experiment  we  are  willing  to  say  that  if  by  experiment  is  meant  the  general 


KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS.  i8i 

conduct  of  the  life,  we  claim  for  Christian  truth  that  it  can  be  submitted  to 
experiment  as  truly  as  can  any  other  truth.  In  the  satisfaction  which 
follows  the  making  of  the  truth  taught  by  Jesus  the  rule  of  the  life  we  have 
the  inner  conviction  which  assures  of  the  truth  of  the  teaching. 

But  we  meet  still  some  further  objection.  The  contender  for  the  real 
and  vital  communion  between  the  soul  and  God  feels  that  somehow  we  have 
handed  this  entire  matter  of  assurance  over  to  the  natural  as  distinguished 
from  the  supernatural.  Instead  of  the  direct  witness  of  God's  spirit  with 
ours  we  have  now  only  the  same  kind  of  assurance  which  follows  grasp 
upon  any  kind  of  truth.  The  trouble  with  our  explanation  is  that  it  seems 
altogether  too  easy. 

To  discuss  this  point  with  thoroughness  would  carry  us  over  into 
metaphysics.  We  may  say,  however,  that  what  has  been  set  forth  above 
is  said  with  the  conviction  that  in  God  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being;  that  the  powers  which  we  call  natural  are  just  as  truly  His  as  those 
we  call  supernatural  or  miraculous ;  that  He  is  in  all  the  things  of  this 
universe  except  sin  ;  that  the  worst  kind  of  atheism  is  that  which  looks  to 
find  God  only  in  the  startling  and  unusual  rather  than  in  the  orderly,  ever^^ 
day  processes  which  are  so  common ;  that  the  assurance  which  we  have  as 
to  the  truth,  even  if  it  seems  like  assurance  as  to  any  other  kind  of  truth,  is 
produced  by  the  immediate  contact  of  God,  even  though  he  be  acting  in  a 
way  which  we  call  altogether  natural. 

It  is  high  time  for  the  church  to  get  rid  of  the  deism  which  has  haunted 
her  for  so  long.  The  modern  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  "  Divine 
Immanence  ",  crude  as  much  of  it  is,  is  helping  us  to  realize  the  presence 
of  God  in  the  world  of  external  nature.  It  is  time  for  the  church  to  take 
the  further  step  and  insist  more  earnestly  that  God  is  not  only  in  orderly 
physical  movements,  but  in  orderly  psychological  movement  as  well. 
Mental  realm  as  well  as  material  realm  should  be  looked  upon  as  the  abode 
of  His  law.  There  is  only  one  way  that  I  can  be  convinced  of  the  Truth, 
and  this  is  by  taking  it  as  the  guide  of  my  life  and  seeing  if  the  satisfaction 
of  assurance  follows. 

But  another  makes  the  objection  that  if  God  is  the  immediate  inspiring 
agent  back  of  all  truth  how  are  we  to  decide  between  truths  of  differing 
degrees  of  importance.  We  have  been  taught  that  the  Truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus  is  the  supreme  truth,  but  if  all  truth  comes  to  us  as  the  inspiration  of 
God,  is  not  all  truth  on  a  level  ? 

There  is  really  very  little  need  of  disturbance  at  this  point.  The  doing 
of  the  will  of  God  is  supposed  to  make  the  will  of  God  the  supreme  consider- 
ation. If  we  wish  to  know  whether  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  Jesus  is 
the  supreme  truth  there  is  only  one  test.  Put  it  in  the  supreme  place  and 
see  if  the  soul  finds  supreme  satisfaction.  God  indeed  tells  us  all  things 
that  are  really  true.  All  good  gifts  come  from  Him.  There  is  nothing  in 
this  thought,  however,  that  should  put  all  the  gifts  on  a  dead  level  of  impor- 
tance. The  belief  is  to  be  judged  by  the  satisfaction  which  follows  taking 
it  as  a  rule  of  life.     If  we  wish  to  get  the  true  perspective  on  the  importance 


1 82  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  God's  gifts  let  the  perspective  be  the  perspective  of  Jesus.    The  appeal 
is  always  to  life. 

But  does  this  conception  provide  against  error  ?  Is  it  not  possible  for 
a  man  to  be  woefully  mistaken  ?  Can  he  not  go  on  year  after  year  thinking 
that  he  is  doing  God's  will  and  becoming  all  the  more  convinced  that  his 
error  is  the  truth  ?  This  is  of  course  possible,  but  it  is  possible  on  any 
system.  The  believer  in  a  miraculous  witness  of  the  spirit  is  just  as  likely 
to  be  mistaken  as  the  holder  of  the  view  here  set  forth.  All  that  we  can 
say  is  that  we  ought  to  have  something  of  the  confidence  in  a  right  outcome 
that  possessed  the  Master.  He  was  not  unaware  of  the  mistakes  that  men 
might  make,  and  yet  he  seemed  perfectly  sure  of  his  final  triumph.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  the  merely  abstract  about  this  scruple.  The  difficulty  is 
not  great  in  real  life.  If  a  central  African  chorus  should  attempt  to  prove 
to  us  that  their  atrocious  discords  are  superior  to  the  music  of  Handel's 
Messiah,  we  should  concede  the  saving  sincerity  of  the  African's  belief,  but 
should  hold  fast  to  our  own  thought  nevertheless.  We  should  even  think 
ourselves  warranted  in  holding  fast,  no  matter  how  great  the  body  of  proof 
the  heathen  singers  might  bring  forth.  The  satisfaction  that  comes  from 
doing  the  will  of  God  includes  the  belief  that  in  the  end  the  truth  will 
prevail. 

But  now  our  scientific  friend  of  a  few  moments  ago  returns  with  the 
protest  that  all  this  is  desperately  unscientific.  The  foundations  of  the 
faith  must  be  deeper  laid  than  in  the  consciousness  of  satisfied  assurance 
in  the  minds  of  the  disciples.  We  have  to  respond  to  him  as  we  did  before, 
that  there  is  just  as  much  basis  for  the  belief  in  Christian  truth  as  there  is 
for  belief  in  scientific  truth.  Science  must  have  assumptions  which  rest 
only  on  the  satisfaction  which  they  give  the  inner  life.  That  splendid 
system  of  law,  according  to  which  all  things  are  controlled  to  the  very 
center  is  an  assumption.  If  the  physicist  declares  that  he  takes  nothing 
into  the  laboratory  with  him,  we  make  speedy  response  that  he  takes  this 
far-reaching  assumption  with  him.  And  he  takes  it  simply  because  it  satis- 
fies his  inner  needs.  He  will  not  be  satisfied  with  thought  of  an  arbitrary 
and  irrational  chaos  of  truant  and  fugitive  facts.  He  will  set  aside  experi- 
ment after  experiment  in  the  hope  to  vindicate  this  settled  assumption.  Or 
take  the  thought  of  the  uniformity  of  nature.  This  assumption  also  stands 
largely  because  of  the  satisfaction  it  gives  our  mental  needs.  Underneath 
all  laboratory  research  is  the  invisible,  unproved  basis  which  is  really  the 
guiding  factor  in  the  scientist's  work.  If  the  scientist  points  to  the  body  of 
actual  result  which  follows  his  assumption,  so  can  we  point  to  the  body  of 
actual  result  which  follows  our  taking  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God  to  be  our 
guide  toward  the  truth. 

We  conclude  this  part  of  the  discussion  as  we  began,  by  saying  that 
Jesus  rested  His  system  upon  the  consciousness  which  would  come  to  men's 
minds  as  they  acted  upon  the  truth  He  proclaimed.  The  Gospels  do  not 
stand  simply  because  they  have  been  uttered  by  divine  man.  They  stand 
because  men  longing  to  be  divine  have  become  convinced  of  their  truth  in 


KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS.  183 

actual  doing.  If  they  ceased  to  satisfy  when  taken  as  the  actual  guide  for 
men  determined  to  do  the  will  of  God,  nothing  could  keep  them  in  the 
thought  of  the  world.  They  would  have  value  only  to  the  antiquarian  or  to 
the  historian.  "  If  any  man  willeth  to  do  the  will  of  God  he  shall  know 
of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God  or  whether  I  speak  of  Myself  ".  The 
revelation  which  comes  in  Jesus  is  the  very  top  and  crown  of  all  of  God's 
manifestations  of  Himself.  The  final  witness  to  the  truth  of  that  revelation 
is  the  feeling  of  satisfaction  which  it  begets  in  submissive  hearts. 

After  having  dwelt  thus  on  the  meaning  of  the  text,  perhaps  a  word  as 
to  some  phases  of  the  usableness  of  the  principle  here  set  forth  may  be  in 
order.  The  principle  provides  first  of  all  for  a  basis  of  suitable  modesty  of 
Christian  claim  as  to  knowledge.  We  are  to  be  unflinchingly  certain  of  the 
truths  which  come  to  us  as  convictions  begotten  by  religious  doing.  Some 
things  will  be  and  should  be  gripped  with  increasing  tenacity  as  life  goes 
on,  but  some  other  things  ought  to  be  held  lightly  and  contemplated  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  genuine  Christian  agnosticism.  Truths  which  come  to 
us  as  the  result  of  doing  the  will  of  God  belong  to  the  first  class,  while  con- 
jectures which  do  not  harden  into  convictio  1  as  the  product  and  accom- 
paniment of  the  will's  faithful  activity  may  well  be  put  in  a  second  and 
inferior  class. 

For  example,  Jesus  taught  us  of  immortality.  The  man  who  goes 
forth  to  live  as  if  immortality  were  actually  reachable  finds  himself  coming 
to  ineradicable  assurance  as  to  his  own  essential  deathlessness.  There  are, 
however,  some  items  of  the  future  life  which  we  all  guess  at  but  which  are 
not  forced  into  conviction  out  of  Christian  doing.  The  details  of  the 
heavenly  existence,  the  manner  of  "  body  "  the  soul  shall  have,  the  precise 
character  of  the  tasks  that  are  to  be  ours,  the  final  disposition  of  the 
wicked, — matters  like  these  do  not  come  within  the  reach  of  the  illumina- 
tion of  Christian  doing.  If  there  are,  on  the  other  hand,  implications  which 
follow  by  a  sort  of  spiritual  necessity  from  the  underlying  trust  in  immor- 
tality there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  hold  them  fast.  If,  for  instance, 
earthly  friendships  are  lifted  to  the  exalted  spiritual  realm  where  they  are 
eternally  worth  while,  there  is  every  ground  for  the  trust  that  nothing  in  the 
final  shock  can  touch  them.  But  let  us  always  remember  that  declarations 
as  to  hidden  things  which  do  not  base  themselves  on  convictions  rising  out 
of  the  doing  of  God's  will  should  be  put  forward  merely  as  conjectures. 

Again,  consider  the  bearing  of  the  Master's  principle  on  some  of  the 
profoundest  speculations  in  Christian  philosophy.  The  underlying  basis  in 
this  philosophy  is  a  body  of  conviction  produced  in  us  by  obedience  to 
God.  We  believe  in  the  God  Whom  Jesus  revealed  because  the  assumption 
of  that  God's  existence  as  a  working  belief  in  our  lives  convinces  us  that 
He  is  and  that  He  is  the  rewarder  of  those  who  diligently  seek  Him. 
Active  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  leads  to  the  completest 
acquiescence  in  His  claims.  Moreover,  we  can  go  further.  On  the  basis  of 
our  certainty  as  to  the  ethical  life  of  God  we  can  reach  out  into  some  legiti- 
mate speculations  as  to  the  inmost  life  of  God.     We  put  these  speculations 


1 84  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

to  the  same  test  as  the  more  primary  beliefs  and  if  we  find  satisfaction  in 
them  we  hold  them  as  true  until  we  get  something  better.  This  is,  of 
course,  mere  philosophical  commonplace,  but  it  would  be  well  if  we  stated 
more  often  and  more  clearly  just  the  ground  on  which  many  of  our  beliefs 
rest.  We  need  no  better  basis  than  this, — that  the  belief  is  forced  upon  us 
by  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God. 

For  illustration,  look  at  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  What  is  the  secret  of 
its  persistence  through  the  centuries  in  spite  of  all  the  intellectual  scruples 
urged  against  it?  Just  this, — that  we  are  forced  to  the  belief  in  one  form  or 
another  through  the  strength  of  our  conviction  as  to  the  ethical  character  of 
God.  We  wish  to  make  adequate  provision  for  that  ethical  life,  and  as 
ethical  life  calls  for  worthy  objects  on  which  to  expend  itself,  we  say  that 
the  Father  finds  such  objects  in  Son  and  Spirit.  We  even  go  further  and 
give  the  Son  and  Spirit  personal  life  that  there  may  be  the  social  requisites 
of  highest  ethical  experience.  The  point  upon  which  I  now  insist  is  that 
the  effective  demand  comes  from  the  necessity,  which  we  feel  as  we  do  God's 
will,  for  some  real  basis  for  ethical  fulness  in  the  source  of  all  moral  and 
spiritual  doing.  Of  course  we  may  profess  to  rest  our  belief  on  some  other 
foundation  stones,  but  their  masonry  will  not  bear  close  scrutiny.  We  may 
say  that  God  must  have  an  object  equal  to  Himself  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
mind's  activity, — that  an  infinite  subject  is  an  absurdity  without  an  infinite 
object.  But  if  God  were  not  a  moral  being,  the  mere  psychological  demand 
for  an  object  could  be  satisfied  without  having  the  object  worthy  and  without 
making  it  personal.  God  might  be  a  supreme  Egotist  glorying  in  unsocial 
and  loveless  loneliness ;  or  He  might  grovel  in  an  endless  succession  of 
infinitely  trivial,  or  infinitely  silly,  or  infinitely  wicked  objects.  No;  the  only 
basis  for  belief  in  the  Trinity  is  the  pressure  for  the  doctrine  as  we  do  the 
commandments  of  God.  If  the  pressure  of  these  needs  should  lessen,  our 
hold  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  would  slacken.  If  the  pressure  should 
still  further  decrease  we  would  surrender  the  thought  of  the  moral  nature  of 
God,  and  complete  removal  of  the  pressure  might  do  away  with  belief  in 
God  altogether.  Instead  of  trying  to  find  some  other  foundation  we  ought 
frankly  to  face  our  problem  and  insist  upon  the  superior  stability  of  a  basis 
which  rises  out  of  the  mighty  upward  push  of  ethical  needs.  All  we  ask  of 
reason  is  that  it  shall  help  us  express  the  implications  which  ethical  con- 
victions carry  with  them;  and  that  it  shall  free  us  from  thought  which  is  self- 
contradictory.  Instead  of  haggling  with  merely  "intellectual"  reasoners 
over  the  technically  logical  standing  of  some  belief  in  Christian  philosophy, 
we  should  make  all  reasonable  allowance  for  the  frailty  of  human  reasoning 
and  then  insist  that  these  beliefs  have  something  of  the  warrant  of  the 
Master's  utterance  about  doing  the  will  and  knowing  the  truth. 

There  ought  to  be  some  value  too  in  the  thought  of  the  text  for  our  true 
attitude  as  reverent  critics  of  the  Biblical  literature.  We  are  living  in  an 
age  when  science  takes  all  things  seriously;  and  scientific  methods  are 
employed  as  never  before  in  the  test  of  the  Scripture  narrative.  It  would 
be  hard  to  say  too  much  in  praise  of  the  results  which  have  come  from  these 
methods  in  the  hands  of  many  experts.     But  there  is  a  danger   lest  the 


KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  TEACHING  OF  JESUS.  185 

methods  become  too  entirely  the  methods  of  the  merely  professional  investi- 
gator. The  exclusive  reliance  on  the  strictly  technical  tends  to  the  deadening 
of  that  spiritual  sympathy  which  ought  to  be  supreme  in  Biblical  criticism. 
"  I  never  read  anything  about  the  Bible  which  is  not  critical"  said  a  distin- 
guished theological  professor  recently.  Some  of  this  scholar's  unreliability 
is  explained  by  the  statement.  Critical  investigation  ought  to  be  accom- 
panied with  that  keenness  of  spiritual  insight  which  is  the  deposit  and 
outcome  of  doing  the  will  of  God.  This  ethical  insight  will  mean  more  than 
months  of  technical  scrutiny.  If  the  merely  textual  critic  of  Shakespeare  is 
to  be  distrusted,  why  should  not  the  merely  textual  critic  of  the  Scripture 
be  distrusted.^  If  a  critic  must  steep  his  mind  with  the  very  spirit  of 
Shakespeare  before  he  really  becomes  able  to  speak  with  authority  about 
the  author  and  his  work,  why  should  not  the  same  rule  hold  in  the  study  of 
the  Bible.''  If  the  one  way  to  come  into  close  understanding  of  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  is  by  doing  the  will  of  God,  why  should  not  religious  devotion  be 
exalted  as  an  indispensable  equipment  for  the  study  of  the  word  of  God? 

Let  us  see  if  this  principle  can  be  made  of  any  practical  benefit.  Take 
the  narratives  of  the  Virgin  Birth,  for  example.  The  critics  busy  themselves 
with  minute  technical  and  professional  scrutiny  of  the  Gospel  account. 
Many  of  them  seem  to  think  that  their  critical  and  scientific  processes 
are  the  final  reliance  in  the  attainment  of  whatever  truth  is  to  be  reached. 
But  the  man  who,  out  of  complete  devotion  to  the  will  of  God,  has  brought 
his  thought  to  sympathy  with  the  fineness  of  the  Spirit  which  is  back  of  and 
beneath  the  Book  makes  almost  instantly  this  significant  discovery, — that 
whereas  it  would  have  been  deemed  apriori  improbable  that  the  narrative 
could  be  told  without  shocking  reverence,  yet  that  very  wonder  has  been 
accomplished.  The  story  is  there,  and  is  there  with  an  exquisite  delicacy 
which  is  quite  a  considerable  argument  for  its  veracity. 

Or  take  another  incident  even  more  detailed.  We  have  in  John  the 
story  of  the  Master's  treatment  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery.  The  critics 
tell  us  that  the  narrative  did  not  originally  have  a  place  in  John's  Gospel, — 
that  it  was  put  in  at  a  date  later  than  the  date  of  the  Gospel  and  by  a  hand 
other  than  that  of  the  apostle.  This  we  are  entirely  willing  to  concede. 
But  when  the  critic  goes  further  and  insists  that  the  narrative  cannot 
be  true,  we  demur.  We  are  perfectly  willing  to  take  any  critical  conclusions 
forced  upon  us  by  the  facts,  but  we  insist,  first,  that  this  question  be  con- 
sidered. How  does  it  happen  that  the  narrative  appeals  to  those  who  have 
by  righteous  life  come  to  closest  understanding  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  as  per- 
fectly in  harmony  with  what  we  should  expect  of  His  character.'  We  cannot 
believe  that  any  one  could  have  beforehand  predicted  what  Jesus  would  do 
in  a  situation  like  that  of  the  story,  but  we  feel  that  the  narrative  is  true  to 
Him.  We  would  not  exalt  this  principle  unreasonably,  but  we  nevertheless 
feel  that  in  this  case  and  in  others  like  it  the  merely  technical  methods  of 
the  profession alist  are  not  the  final  instruments.  The  insight  that  comes 
out  of  doing  the  will  of  God  is  no  unimportant  part  of  the  furnishing  of  the 
competent  Biblical  student.  Instead  of  telling  men  to  prepare  themselves 
with  the  latest  technical  knowledge  so  as  to  be  able  to  meet  destructive 


1 86  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

criticism  on  its  own  ground,  it  would  seem  just  at  present  to  be  in  order  to 
call  also  for  the  development  of  a  spiritual  insight  to  which  the  destructive 
critic  does  not  attain.  Better  make  the  attack  upon  him  from  that  higher 
ground  to  which  he  does  not  come. 

Not  only  has  this  principle  philosophical  and  critical  value,  but  it  has 
also  homiletical  value.  It  is  our  aim  as  teachers  and  preachers  to  instruct 
men  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  How  shall  we  do  this?  The  important 
method  is  that  of  this  passage, — the  stirring  of  the  depths  of  the  ethical  life 
to  the  doing  of  the  will  of  God.  I  suppose  that  Jesus  depended  very  little, 
after  all,  on  His  direct  oral  teaching  for  the  development  of  the  twelve  for 
apostleship.  He  did  not  insist  upon  note  book  methods  of  instruction.  He 
aimed  to  get  the  disciples  to  doing  the  will  of  God.  In  the  midst  of  all  our 
attempts  to  get  the  Gospel  into  some  simple  form  so  that  men  may  see  it  at 
a  glance,  we  should  not  let  go  of  this  fundamental  principle  of  the  Master's 
pedagogics, — that  the  truth  worth  seeing  can  only  be  seen  as  we  do  the  will 
of  God, — that  unless  we  rouse  the  wills  of  men  to  righteousness  we  cannot 
get  them  to  understand  the  Gospel.  How  this  is  to  be  done  is  a  problem 
that  taxes  us  to  the  utmost,  but  if  we  can  do  it  we  have  the  essential  thing, 
not  only  for  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  the  men  with  whom  we  work,  but 
for  the  enlightenment  of  the  church  and  the  world  as  to  the  truth  of  the 
system  which  came  with  Jesus. 

If  it  will  not  unduly  extend  a  paper  already  too  long,  let  me  say  in 
closing  that  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  in  this  utterance  of  Jesus  a  glimpse 
at  the  truth  in  that  most  fascinating  of  all  realms  of  study, — the  inquiry  as 
to  the  secret  of  the  wisdom  of  Jesus  and  the  unfolding  of  His  mind.  For 
those  who  think  that  Jesus  brought  all  His  knowledge  with  Him  from  the 
beginning, — that  He  surrendered  nothing  m  becoming  man,  this  question 
has  of  course  no  meaning.  But  those  of  us  who  believe  that  it  really  cost 
the  Son  of  God  something  substantial  to  become  man  are  not  willing  to 
admit  that  all  wisdom  was  His  from  childhood.  We  can  see  that  the  personal 
thread  of  inalienable  self-feeling  must  have  been  with  the  Master  in  all 
phases  of  His  existence,  but  we  cannot  think  that  His  self-knowledge  and 
His  penetration  of  the  depths  of  the  wisdom  of  God  came  without  effort  of 
will.  We  feel  that  we  have  the  key  to  the  secret  in  this  passage.  From  the 
beginning  the  will  of  Jesus  swung  intuitively  toward  God.  As  He  did  the 
will  of  the  Father  that  infinite  wisdom  which  is  of  God  descended  as  a  matter 
of  course.  So  far  as  concerns  the  essential  body  of  His  teaching  He  found 
the  truth  not  by  miraculous  revelation,  but  by  profound  conviction  resulting 
from  perfect  obedience  to  the  will  above.  Out  of  the  perfect  deed  came  the 
perfect  knowledge.  Jesus  spoke  out  of  His  own  experience  when  He  said 
that  doing  the  will  of  God  would  bring  certainty  as  to  the  truth. 

The  lesson  brings  not  only  enlightenment  but  encouragement.  As  we 
approximate  to  His  devotion  to  the  will  of  God  we  shall  approximate  to  His 
understanding  of  the  wisdom  of  God.  The  one  thing  that  keeps  back  the 
descent  of  the  perfect  wisdom  is  imperfect,  half-hearted  doing.  If  we  could 
go  about  doing  good  as  He  did  we  could  more  speedily  come  near  the 
wisdom  which  was  His. 


*  SPIRIT  AND  LIFE. 

(St.  John  7  :  37-39.) 

by  rkv.  aaiory  h.  bradkord,  d.  t>., 

Pastor  ok  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Montclair,  N.  J. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  as  stated  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  John's 
Gospel,  impresses  one  even  at  the  first  glance  with  its  vastness  and  its 
mystery.  What  do  these  texts  mean?  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come 
unto  Me,  and  drink.  He  that  believeth  on  Me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said, 
out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water.  But  this  spake  He  of  the 
Spirit,  which  they  that  believed  on  Him  were  to  receive ;  for  the  Spirit  was 
not  yet  given;  because  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified  ". 

Here  are  two  distinct  utterances ;  the  former  was  spoken  by  Jesus,  and 
the  latter  is  an  intrepretation  of  His  words  by  the  writer  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel.  The  Master  was  speaking  to  seekers  after  the  truth  rather  than  to 
the  disciples.  He  says  in  substance  :  If  you  are  really  athirst  for  God  and 
for  reality,  come  to  Me,  trust  Me,  believe  on  Me,  and  you  shall  be  so  full  of  the 
true  life  that  it  will  flow  out  of  you  as  waters  from  an  overflowing  fountain. 
In  other  words  if  you  really  desire  truth  and  right,  come  into  personal  con- 
tact with  Me  and  you  will  receive  what  you  desire  in  abundance. 

If  those  who  are  athirst  for  truth  and  right  will  accept  Jesus  and  follow 
Him,  they  will  be  enabled  to  live  the  life  of  the  Spirit,  to  realize  the  power 
of  the  Spirit,  and  to  help  others  to  do  so.  Let  us  consider  spirit  as  life  in 
the  history  of  mankind.  Spirit  is  /I'g/if  because  it  is  life.  Spirit  is  uni- 
versal ;  consequently  light  is  universal.  Spirit  according  to  the  Christian 
usage  of  the  word  is  everywhere  that  the  Christian  revelation  has  gone. 
The  spiritual  life  is  the  spirit  in  man  which  is  spelled  with  a  small  s,  touched 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  which  is  spelled  with  a  capital  S.  Within  all  true 
Christians,  therefore,  is  all  the  light  they  need  for  illumination  and  guidance. 
"  Ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One  and  need  not  that  any  man  should 
teach  you ".  This,  as  I  understand  it,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Quakers. 
"  When  He,  the  spirit  of  truth  will  come.  He  will  lead  you  into  all  truth  and 
show  you  things  to  come  ".  What  does  this  mean  ?  That  some  external 
divine  light  in  some  strangely  mystical  way  falls  upon  us  and  illuminates 
our  path  ?  Does  it  not  mean  rather  that  within  the  souls  of  all  men  there 
is  light,  obscured,  perhaps,  but  surely  there,  which  is  sufficient  for  all  man's 
duties;  that  the  candle  in  every  soul  is  lighted  by  the  sun  which  is  God,  and 
that  it  is  our  supreme  duty  and  privilege  to  use  the  light  which  shines 


*  Abstract  of  an  address  delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  January 
13,  1904. 


187 


1 88  THE  GOSPEL    OF  ST.  JOHN. 

within,  and  which  will  never  fail  those  who  are  pure  in  mind  and  loyal  in 
heart. 

The  chief  spiritual  difficulty  of  our  time  is  that  we  are  not  willing  to 
know  ourselves.  The  oracle  was  right,  "  Know  thyself  ",  for  thus,  and  thus 
only  may  you  hope  to  know  God.  I  am  well  aware  that  it  may  be  said  in 
reply  :  "  Then  all  authoritative  standards  go, — then  the  guess  of  one  man 
is  worth  as  much  as  the  guess  of  another  ".  But  there  is  the  mistake.  I 
am  not  speaking  of  the  guesses  of  any  man,  but  I  am  insisting  that  the  final 
truth  is  written  within  as  surely,  if  not  as  clearly,  as  without ;  that  it  was 
within  before  it  was  without ;  that  it  was  expedient  for  Jesus  to  go  away 
in  order  that  the  eyes  of  His  disciples  might  be  turned  inward  rather  than 
outward ;  and  that  we  have  no  more  sacred  obligation  than  to  study  the 
truth  in  the  inner  light,  and  that  no  man  who  is  loyal  to  himself  can,  at  the 
same  time,  be  false  to  God. 

Our  next  point  is  that  Spirit  which  is  life  is  the  cause  of  progress  and, 
may  it  not  be  said,  the  efficient  force  in  evolution  ?  What  is  evolution  ?  It 
is  the  gradual  development  according  to  inherent  laws,  of  a  resident  force. 
What  is  that  force  ?  I  choose  to  call  it  Spirit.  Indeed  evolution  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  process  by  which  the  Spirit  immanent  in  the  universe  rei^ponds 
to  the  Spirit  who  transcends  the  universe. 

Finally  the  spiritualization  of  all  men  and  of  all  institutions  is  the  goal 
of  history.  All  men  are  spirits  ;  but  all  do  not  live  in  the  realization  of  their 
spiritual  origin  and  destiny.  A  spiritual  being  has  been  evolved,  but 
often  turns  back  to  fleshly  conditions  from  which  he  has  risen  and  does  not 
know  himself  to  be  a  spirit.     That  is  sin. 

Individuals  are  spiritualized  when  they  realize  that  they  are  spirits 
come  from  God,  and  live  according  to  their  higher  rather  than  their  lower 
natures.  And  this  is  the  lesson  of  lessons — actually  to  appreciate  that  we 
are  spirits,  and  that,  as  naturally  as  flowers  turn  toward  the  sun,  when  we 
are  our  true  selves  we  turn  toward  God  the  Father  of  spirits,  and  are  dis- 
satisfied with  everything  at  enmity  with  Him.  When  men  shall  dwell  in  the 
consciousness  that  they  are  partakers  of  God's  very  nature,  and  therefore 
spirits,  for  He  is  Spirit,  and  are  in  harmonious  relations  with  one  another, 
as  God-like  spirits  must  be,  then  the  race  will  be  spiritualized,  and  the 
triumph  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  will  be  near. 

The  Spirit  of  God  identifying  Himself  with  the  spirit  in  man  is  "  The 
•inner  light ", — the  candle  of  the  Lord, — the  revealer  of  truth  and  duty. 

He  is  the  inspiration  toward  holy  conduct,  the  power  which  makes 
truth  to  become  life. 

He  is  the  cause  of  progress  in  individuals  and  among  the  institutions  of 
men  ;  and  the  spiritualization  of  the  whole  race  of  man,  until  the  vilest  and 
meanest  shall  think  the  thoughts  and  do  the  deeds  and  share  the  glory  of 
Christ,  is  the  goal  of  history, 

"  The  one  far-off  event 
Toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves  ". 


*  THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  JESUS. 
(St.  John  8  :  29,  46.) 

BY     RKV.     ■WIUL.IA.M:     R.     HUNTINGTON,     D.     D., 

Rector  of  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  New  York. 

Invited  to  address  this  Conference  upon  the  subject  of  the  sinlessness 
of  Jesus  as  evidenced  by  the  contents  of  certain  specified  chapters  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  I  felt,  for  the  moment,  that  I  had  been  shut  up  between  too 
narrow  limits.  Why  not  listen  to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  I  asked  myself,  as 
well  as  to  St.  John  ?  Or  if,  for  sufficient  reason,  one  must  needs  be  confined 
to  a  solitary  New  Testament  author,  why  not  be  given  access  to  all  of  that 
author's  writings,  rather  than  be  tied  down  to  a  fractional  portion  of  a  single 
one  of  them  ?  Had  not  St.  John  dealt  with  this  topic  in  his  letters  as  well 
as  in  his  Gospel  ? 

Enquiry  and  meditation,  however,  soon  convinced  me  that  the  range 
given  was  amply  wide,  and  that  a  single  chapter  out  of  the  designated  four 
furnished  enough,  and  more  than  enough  material  to  supply  all  my  need. 
I  even  found  it  possible  to  narrow  down  the  sources  of  information  still 
further,  and  confess  myself,  to-day,  quite  content  to  stake  the  whole  issue 
upon  two  detached  sayings,  one  of  them  a  question  and  the  other  an  affirma- 
tion,— both  of  them  together  not  covering  more  than  twenty  words. 

The  secret  of  this  abatement  in  my  demand  upon  Holy  Scripture  lies 
here.  I  am  convinced  that  certitude  as  to  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  is  really 
conditioned  upon  an  act  of  faith.  We  declare  Him  sinless  not  because  we 
have  critically  reviewed  His  life  and  found  no  flaw,  but  because  we  have 
yielded  assent  to  what  He  says  about  Himself.  In  other  words,  "Christ 
alone  without  sin  "  is  a  dogma,  not  a  generalization,  Absolutely  to  prove 
the  point  from  facts  observed  is  impossible.  We  get  at  it  by  beUeving  in 
words  spoken,  by  crediting,  for  sufficient  cause,  a  solemn  asseveration.  I 
learned  this  from  James  Mozley,  one  of  the  keenest  as  well  as  weightiest  of 
the  nineteenth-century  theologians. 

In  the  course  of  a  controversy  waged  with  Professor  Tyndall,  late  in  the 
sixties,  over  the  subject  of  miracles,  Mozley  found  occasion  to  show,  and 
did  show  most  convincingly,  the  utter  impossibility  of  proving  in  any  case 
inward  sanctity  from  outward  actions.  He  instances  our  Lord's  denuncia- 
tions of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  then  remarks:  "To  those  who 
admit,  upon  the  evidence  which  is  laid  before  them,  our  Lord's  sinlessness, 
there  is  not  the  slightest  discord  between  such  language  and  such  sinless- 
ness, but  common  reason  tells  us  that  had  we  to  judge  of  such  language 
without  the  assumption  of  our  Lord's  sinless  character,  we  could  not  tell 
but  that  some  element  of  imperfection,  some  shade  of  prejudice,  some  pas- 


•Delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  January  13,  1904. 

189 


I90  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

sionate  excess,  might  enter  into  such  censures.     The  majesty,  the  integrity, 
the  holiness  of  our  Lord's  character  is  indeed  conspicuous  and  obvious  upon 
the  facts  of  the  case,  but  when  we  attribute  absolute  sinlessness  to  Him,  it 
is  plain  that  by  the  laws  of  reason  we  must  be  going  upon  some  further 
evidence  than  that  which  is  contained  in  His  outward  life  and  deportment". 
The  method  to  which  Mozley  in  these  words  points  us  is  so  unlike  that 
commonly  adopted  by  Christian  apologists,  that  we  shall  do  well  to  make 
sure  of  understanding  it.     The  more  usual  course  with  defenders  of  the 
faith  is,  as  we  know,  to  marshal  the  facts  and  incidents  which  in  the  four 
Gospels  connect  themselves,  more  or  less  closely,  with  the  person  of  Christ, 
and  then  to  urge  the  conclusion  that  a  life  so  luminous  in  its  entirety  must 
necessarily  have  been  in  its  details  wholly  without  spot.     But  to  one  who 
realizes  the  universality  of  sin,  to  one  who  discerns  in  sin  a  characteristic  of 
the  human  lot  which  none  escapes  or  can  escape,  such  reasoning  is  scarcely 
satisfactory.     It  may  and  does  suffice  to  prove  the  Son  of  Mary  holier  than 
any  other  born  of  woman,  but  to  be  sinless,  in  the  fullest  and  deepest  sense 
the  word  can  bear,  means  to  be  what  no  man  ever  has  been,  unless  we  rec- 
ognize this  one  solitary  exception.     In  a  word,  if  Jesus  was  really  sinless, 
His  sinlessness  must  count  as  the  miracle  of  history,  more  marvelous  than 
any  other  recorded  marVel,  a  wonder  beyond  all  other  wonders,  signal  and 
unique.     Surely  if  there  be  any  phenomenon  that  transcends  experience 
and  defies  parallel  it  is  sinlessness,  and  since  under  the  most  favorable  of 
circumstances  it  is  confessedly  difficult  to  authenticate  a  miracle,  doubly 
difficult  ought  it  to  be  reckoned  to  establish  in  any  given  instance  absolute 
immunity  from  blame.     A  character  may  be  so  white  and  pure  as  literally  to 
dazzle  us  by  the  brilliancy  of  its  perfection,  (there  have  been  such,)  and  yet 
be  far  from  sinless.     Though  the  unaided  eye  discerns  them  not,  there  are 
spots  on  the  sun. 

"The  very  source  and  fount  of  day 

Is  flecked  with  wandering  isles  of  night". 

Who,  then,  is  this  Light  of  the  World,  this  Sun  of  Righteousness,  that 
of  Him  any  should  dare  to  say,  He  alone  among  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  millions  who  have  come  into  this  world  out  of  the  unseen  was  sinless  ? 
The  facts  of  His  life  do,  indeed,  prove  Him  to  have  been  the  holiest  of  men, 
but  there  is  a  difference  between  being  the  hoUest  of  men  and  being  holy  as 
God  is  holy. 

We  are  in  a  temper  now  to  look  at  the  two  sayings  out  of  St.  John's 
Gospel,  one  of  them  an  affirmation,  one  a  question,  upon  which  I  declared 
myself  willing  to  rest  the  whole  case.  They  are  these  :  "  I  do  always  those 
things  which  please  Him  ".     "  Which  of  you  convicteth  me  of  sin  ?  " 

These  words  unquestionably  place  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  a  class  by  Him- 
self. It  is  not  known  that  any  other  human  being  ever  used  the  like.  The 
two  utterances  differ  in  form  ;  the  one  is  a  positive  assertion,  the  other  is  a 
challenge,  but  in  purport  they  are  identical.  Always  to  do  those  things 
which  please  God  is,  ex  vi  termini,  to  be  sinless,  for  on  this  same  Evangelist's 
authority  "he  that  doeth  righteousness  is  righteous". 


THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  JESUS.  191 

The  question  is,  can  we,  and  do  we,  trust  Jesus  Christ,  when  He  thus 
speaks?  If  we  can  and  do,  the  entire  question  in  controversy  is  for  us  set- 
tled ;  the  miracle  of  history  is  acknowledged,  the  unique  exception  recognized. 
No  longer  do  we  find  it  necessary  laboriously  to  examine  and  critically  to 
weigh  the  arguments  for  and  against  this  point  of  sinlessness.  We  say,  as 
the  Samaritans  said  to  the  woman  who  had  brought  them  out  from  their  city 
to  the  place  where  Jesus  was :  "  Now  we  believe,  not  because  of  thy  saying, 
for  we  have  heard  Him  ourselves  and  know  that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ". 
Depend  upon  it,  friends,  this  whole  matter  of  religion,  as  Christians 
have  to  do  with  it,  is  an  affair  of  personal  confidence,  to  be  settled  like  any 
other  affair  of  personal  confidence— can  I  trust  him  or  can  I  not?  "The 
man  believed  the  word  which  Jesus  had  spoken  unto  him,  and  went  his 
way  ".     That  tells  the  whole  story. 

Clear-cut  against  the  back-ground  of  the  past  stands  Jesus  Christ.  We 
talk  about  forgetting  Him,  ignoring  Him,  relegating  Him  to  obscurity,  vot- 
ing Him  obsolete.  It  cannot  be  done.  There  He  stands.  His  eyes,  like 
the  eyes  of  a  portrait  on  the  wall,  follow  us  whithersoever,  in  this  narrow 
room  called  human  life,  we  turn.  Thrust  aside  even  ever  so  violently  He 
cannot  be,  waved  aside  even  ever  so  courteously  He  will  not  be.  He  is  here 
to  stay.     Reckon  with  Him  we  must. 

Well  then,  on  the  whole,  shall  we  trust  Him  ?  I  say  "  on  the  whole  ", 
wishing  by  that  phrase  to  intimate  that  I  have  no  disposition  to  minimize 
the  difficulties  of  faith.  But  after  making  all  the  allowance  that  you  please 
or  that  the  facts  in  the  case  demand  for  draw-backs  and  set-backs,  after  dis- 
counting the  clatter  of  the  critics,  the  cold  neutrality  of  the  literary  guild, 
the  strivings  of  the  many  that  oppose  themselves  by  whatsoever  name  known 
or  called, — on  the  whole,  all  things  considered,  Christendom  being  what  it 
is,  these  nineteen  hundred  years  having  been  what  they  have  been,  can  we 
do  better,  you  and  I,  than  take  Jesus  at  His  word?  If  we  do,  the  sinless- 
ness is  part  of  it  all.  Which  of  us  convicteth  Him  of  sin  ?  Not  one,  and 
why  ?     For  the  simple  reason  that  He  is  innocent. 

"I  do  always"  He  says,  "those  things  that  please  Him".  "Assertion, 
pure  assertion  !  "—yes,  I  grant  it,— but  then  we  have  just  agreed  that,  on  the 
whole,  we  see  our  way  to  giving  the  asserter  our  confidence.  That  settles 
the  matter.     Even  as  those  who  first  trusted  in  Christ,  in  Christ  we  trust. 

I  propose  now  to  set  opposite  this  statement,  "  I  do  always  such  things 
as  please  Him  ",  three  other  New  Testament  affirmations,  which,  upon  their 
face,  appear  to  contravene  it.  If  we  find  after  analysis  and  investigation 
that  these  sayings,  so  far  from  being  contradictory  to,  are  really  confirmatory 
of  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus,  we  shall  be  in  a  position  to  declare  that  the  men 
upon  whose  teaching  Christendom  is  founded,  are,  with  respect  to  this  all- 
important  point,  of  one  mind. 

"  Why  callest  thou  me  good  ?  There  is  none  good  but  one,  that  is  God  ". 
Jesus  Christ  said  this.  Had  He  known  Himself  to  be  sinless  would  He 
have  so  spoken  ?  Not  unless  He  was  conscious  of  being  out  of  the  category 
which  held  the  one  whom  He  addressed,  not  unless  He  was  intending  to 


192  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

bring  out  into  clear  light  His  own  essential  divinity.  There  is  none  good 
but  God,  if  I  am  good,  I  must  be  God,  and  conversely,  Aut  Deus,  aut  non 
bonus. 

Recall  the  dialogue  and  note  a  point  in  it  too  commonly  missed.  The 
questioner  is  the  young  man  who  has  great  possessions,  but  who  would  fain 
add  to  them,  if  he  may,  the  further  treasure  of  eternal  life.  Christ  says  to 
him,  "If  thou  wilt  enter  into  life  keep  the  commandments".  The  young 
man  asks  "  Which?"  Now  we  should  naturally  expect,  should  we  not,  that 
in  answer  to  this  question  Jesus  would  begin  with  the  first  commandment 
and  go  on  consecutively  to  the  tenth.  He  does  nothing  of  the  sort.  He 
skips  the  entire  first  table.  He  omits  the  whole  of  the  duty  towards  God, 
begins, — "  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder  ",  and  confines  Himself  wholly  to  those 
of  the  ten  words  which  cover  our  duty  towards  our  fellow  man, — a  strange 
hiatus.  But  note  what  follows.  "All  these",  the  young  man  declares, 
"  Have  I  kept  from  my  youth  up,  what  lack  I  yet?  "  The  obvious,  nay,  the 
absolutely  necessary  answer  would  seem  to  be,  "What  thou  lackest  is  com- 
pliance with  that  portion  of  the  law  which  thus  far  I  have  not  named,  the 
duty  towards  God".  Such,  I  say,  would  seem  to  be  the  one  reply  which  the 
situation  demands. 

But  that  is  not  what  we  find.  What  we  find  is  this, — "If  thou  wilt  be 
perfect,  go  and  sell  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have 
treasure  in  heaven ;  and  come,  follow  Me".  Come,  follow  Me.  Who  is  this, 
we  ask,  amazed,  who  dares  to  make  the  following  of  him,  the  one  thing 
lacking  for  a  man  who  has  only  so  far  professed  compliance  with  the  second 
table  of  the  law  ?  Who  can  it  be  save  the  One  Whom  to  trust  and  Whom  to 
serve,  is  the  same  thing  as  to  do  our  duty  towards  God?  The  hiatus  is  filled, 
the  gap  covered,  the  whole  law  kept. 

The  second  affirmation  to  which  I  made  reference,  as  seemingly  incon- 
sistent with  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus,  is  this.  "  Though  He  were  a  Son,  yet 
learned  He  obedience  by  the  things  which  He  suffered,  and  being  made 
perfect  He  became  the  author  of  eternal  salvation  unto  all  them  that  obey 
Him".  You  recognize  the  passage  as  quoted  from  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.  Let  us  look  at  it.  Disobedience  to  lawful  authority  is  surely  not 
compatible  with  sinlessness.  And  yet,  this  writer  seems  to  speak  as  if  there 
was  once  a  time  when  it  could  be  truly  said  of  the  Lord  Jesus  that  He  did 
not  know  how  to  obey,  in  fact  had  to  begin  learning  how  ?  But  pray  whither 
should  we  go  in  search  of  evidence  that  such  a  time  there  was  ?  We  have, 
it  is  true,  no  authentic  Gospel  of  the  infancy,  but  we  have  a  Gospel  of  the 
childhood,  and  what  do  we  there  read?  Why,  simply  this  — and  it  tells  the 
whole  story, — "He  went  down  with  them  and  came  to  Nazareth,  and  was 
subject  unto  them  ".  And  what  of  His  later  years  ?  In  all  that  the  Evan- 
gelists have  to  tell  of  that  marvelous  life,  is  there  to  be  found  the  slightest 
hint  of  a  refusal  to  obey  any  rightful  authority  human  or  divine?  Is  not 
their  whole  narrative  from  first  to  last  confirmatory  of  the, — "I  do  always 
those  things  that  please  Him  "  ? 

Clearly,  unless  we  are  to  reckon  Christ  "  among  the  transgressors  "  in 


THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  JESUS.  193 

a  sense  quite  contrary  to  that  in  which  His  followers  have  all  along  been 
interpreting  the  prophet's  phrase,  there  must  be  some  way  of  understanding 
what  it  means  to  "  learn  obedience  "  other  than  that  which  makes  it  identical 
with  learning  how  to  obey.  A  disobedient  Christ  could  have  no  standing 
room  in  the  church's  creed.  It  is  the  One  Who  says  "  I  come  to  do  Thy 
will"  Whom  we  confess,  the  keeper  alike  of  God's  least  commandments  and 
of  His  greatest,  the  sinless  One.  But  how  shall  we  interpret  learning  obedi- 
ence in  such  a  way  as  to  make  Christ's  having  done  so  not  inconsistent  with 
such  a  faith?  In  this  way,  I  submit,  by  taking  it  to  mean  one's  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  whole  territory  covered  and  included  by  obedience. 
The  man  who  has  learned  painting  is  other  and  more  than  the  man  who  has 
merely  learned  to  paint.  The  man  who  has  learned  music  is  other  and  more 
than  the  man  who  has  simply  learned  how  to  play  upon  an  instrument.  The 
man  who  has  learned  painting  has  explored  the  entire  subject  from  first  to 
last ;  he  knows  it  historically,  he  knows  it  critically,  he  knows  it  practically, 
he  can  tell  you  who  the  great  painters  have  been,  what  were  the  character- 
istics of  their  various  styles,  and  all  about  it ;  he  has  covered  the  whole 
ground.  So  with  learning  obedience,  we  may  understand  the  phrase  in  the 
narrow  and  limited  sense  of  simply  learning  to  do  as  one  is  bid,  or  we  may 
understand  it  in  this  larger  and  broader  sense  of  learning  how  much  a  really 
genuine  obedience  involves,  learning,  so  to  say,  the  whole  cubic  contents  of 
obedience,  as  obedience  stands  related  to  human  life.  This  last  is  the  way 
in  which  Christ  learned  obedience.  He  grew  to  be  master  of  the  whole 
subject  and  the  method  whereby  this  mastership  was  acquired  was  the 
method  of  suffering.  It  is  written  of  the  child  Christ  that  He  "  increased  " 
in  wisdom  as  well  as  in  stature,  and  part  of  this  increase  we  may  well  believe 
was  in  that  particular  kind  of  wisdom  by  which  men  come  to  know  how  much 
a  really  complete  obedience  covers  and  involves.  The  only  difference 
between  the  Christ-child  and  other  Nazareth  children  in  this  respect  was 
that  He  never  disobeyed.  Whatever  least  thing  was  taught  by  suffering 
was  straightway  put  in  practice.  With  the  ordinary  child  it  is  not  so.  In 
the  school  of  suffering  the  lesson  has  to  be  taught  many  times,  it  has  to  be 
line  upon  line  and  precept  upon  precept  before  the  pupil  can  be  depended 
upon  to  act  up  to  it.  Disobedience  is  an  act  of  the  will.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  disobeying  without  a  conscious  determination  to  do  so. 

Christ  had  only  to  know  what  obedience  required  of  Him,  and  at  once 
He  did  it.  But  in  this  sort  of  wisdom,  the  learning  what  obedience  did 
require,  He,  from  day  to  day,  from  year  to  year,  "increased"  until,  at  last 
made  perfect  in  it.  He  could  say  that  it  was  learned,  even  though  in  the 
whole  process  of  learning  there  had  been  no  single  instance  of  transgression; 
and  only  when  there  is  transgression  is  there  sin. 

The  third  saying  which  I  quote  as  being  seemingly  in  conflict  with  the 
dogma,  Christ  alone  without  sin,  is  also  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
In  that  Scripture  we  find  Christ  spoken  of  as  "  One  that  hath  been  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin  ".  How  can  He,  we  ask,  have  been 
without  sin   if    tempted  in   all  points  like   as  we  are.     In  us  there   is  an 


194  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

element  of  consent,  which  goes  out  to  meet  the  temptation  half-way  so  to 
speak.  We  cannot  say  of  ourselves  as  Christ  said  of  Himself  that  Satan 
Cometh  and  finds  nothing  in  us.  He  finds  too  much.  But  let  us  see 
whether  we  cannot  establish  a  parallelism  between  Christ's  temptation  and 
ours,  which  while  it  shows  us  sinful  at  the  same  time  leaves  Him  sinless. 

It  is  common  to  explain  the  three  temptations  in  the  wilderness  by 
saying  that  the  first  of  them,  "Command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread  ", 
was  addressed  to  the  animal  element  that  is  in  every  man ;  that  the  second, 
"  Cast  Thyself  down  ",  was  an  appeal  to  spiritual  pride,  and  that  the  third, 
"All  these  things  will  I  give  Thee,  if — ",  was  an  attempt  to  work  upon  ambi- 
tion in  the  common,  worldly  sense.  But  I  think  it  will  be  more  to  our  present 
purpose  if  we  insist  on  looking  at  all  three  of  the  temptations  as  intended 
to  undermine  the  Son's  confidence  in  the  Father.  You  recall  the  wording 
of  the  tempter's  appeal,  7/" Thou  be  the  Son  of  God, — do  this;  ^Thou  be 
the  Son  of  God, — do  that. 

We  must  keep  it  in  mind  that  this  crisis  in  our  Lord's  life  followed  close 
upon  the  baptism.  Jesus  had  just  been  inducted,  as  we  may  say,  into  His 
office  as  the  Christ.  The  voice  had  said  from  heaven,  "  This  is  My  beloved 
Son",  and  John  the  baptizer  had  solemnly  borne  witness  to  the  coming  of 
the  greater  than  himself. 

Full  of  this  consciousness  of  a  heavenly  mission,  awakened  perhaps  for 
the  first  time  to  a  clear  understanding  of  all  that  He  really  was,  the  Son  of 
Mary  had  come  into  the  wilderness  to  ponder  these  things,  to  feed  upon 
them,  as  it  were,  while  denying  Himself  all  other  food.  This,  then,  was  the 
grand  point  of  attack,  the  confidence  in  the  heavenly  Fatherhood.  If  the 
tempter  could  only  shake  this  trust  of  Sonship,  only  break  up  this  filial  sense, 
his  bad  end  would  be  accomplished. 

"  If  Thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread  ". 

"  If  Thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  Thyself  down  from  this  pinnacle". 

These  are  challenges, — challenges  coupled  with  a  sneer.  The  suggestion 
is  that  the  powers  of  God's  world,  the  forces  of  His  universe,  are  hostile, 
not  friendly,  and  that  because  of  their  being  so  the  divine  Fatherhood  can- 
not be  trusted  or  depended  upon.  Is  there  nothing  in  the  experience  of 
modern  man  that  tallies  with  all  this  ?  Have  not  you  and  I,  in  our  measure 
and  degree,  to  grapple  with  these  same  temptations? 

Who,  we  cry,  can  be  counted  upon  to  turn  the  stones  that  strew  so 
thickly  the  wilderness  of  this  life  of  ours  into  bread  that  shall  satisfy  our 
hunger }  Who,  in  the  midst  of  the  many  and  great  perils  that  compass  all 
our  ways,  will  keep  us  from  being  dashed  to  pieces  if  we  fall  ?  Not  God, 
surely,  for  God  works  through  nature,  and  nature  is  under  the  hard  rule  of 
law,  and  there  is  nothing  for  us  save  simple  acquiescence  in  what  seems  to 
be  our  doom.  There  is  nothing  very  unfamiliar  about  this, — is  there.'' 
This  is  no  strange  temptation  that  thus  befalls  us,  but  such  a  one  as  is  com- 
mon to  modern  man,— the  temptation  to  distrust  God's  love,  the  temptation 
to  disbelieve  in  His  care,  to  repudiate  the  Sonship.  But,  after  all,  the  only 
thing  we  need  to  help  us  out  of  our  distress  is  patience.     In  wonderful  ways. 


THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  JESUS.  195 

and  with  a  rapidity  never  before  observed,  the  Author  of  Nature  is  making 
nature  plastic  to  our  hands.  She  is  no  longer  the  cruel  mistress  she  used 
to  be.  When  she  presses  us  hard  with  her  pains  and  bruises,  her  accidents 
and  sicknesses,  and  we  feel  moved  almost  to  despair  at  the  thought  of  all 
her  waves  and  billows  going  over  us,  let  us  say  to  ourselves :  "  This  is  my 
temptation  ;  God  is  my  Father  all  the  same.  For  reasons  of  His  own  He 
is  letting  these  forces  buffet  me,  letting  me  be  tossed  about,  battered  and 
tortured,  but  He  is  all  the  while  just  as  truly  my  Father,  just  as  really  my 
friend,  as  if  He  were  turning  stones  into  bread  at  my  appeal, or  giving  angels 
charge  to  bear  me  miraculously  in  their  hands  lest  I  strike  my  foot  against 
gargoyle  or  capital.  Be  sure  whatever  voice  bids  us  think  otherwise  is  a 
tempting  voice,  a  scoffing  voice,  a  voice  against  which  we  shall  do  well  to 
shut  our  ears. 

The  last  of  the  temptations  stands  alone  and  by  itself.  The  devil  taketh 
Him  up  into  an  exceeding  high  mountain,  and  showeth  Him  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  world  in  a  moment  of  tirce.  These,  he  says,  are  mine  and  to 
whomsoever  I  will  I  give  them,  and  Thou  shalt  have  them,  if  Thou  wilt  only 
fall  down  and  worship  me.  But  even  in  this  case,  different  as  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  temptation  is  from  that  of  the  other  two,  even  here  we  discern 
the  same  bad  motive  lurking  in  the  back-ground,  the  same  malicious  resolve 
to  break  down,  if  it  can  possibly  be  done,  the  soul's  confidence  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  It  is  Satan  masquerading  as  the  King.  "  Consider  all  this 
grandeur,"  the  tempter  says,  "see  all  this  magnificent  paraphernalia  of  war 
and  peace,  of  enterprise  and  achievement.  Look  yonder  at  those  parlia- 
ments and  congresses,  those  armies  and  navies.  Contemplate  those  huge 
industries  symbolized  by  factory  and  workshop  and  warehouse.  Watch  the 
emigrations  that  are  going  on,  the  commingling  of  races,  the  peopling  of 
continents,  and  think  of  what  it  means  to  have  the  ordering  of  all  this. 
Think  of  the  honor  and  the  advantage  of  being  my  prime  minister  in  the 
government  of  so  various  and  interesting  a  realm  '". 

But  this  temptation  like  the  others  rests  on  the  rotten  substructure  of  a 
lie.  This  that  the  tempter  says,  is  false,  utterly,  absolutely,  everlastingly 
false.  It  is  the  power  of  goodness,  not  the  power  of  evil,  that  really  rules 
these  manifold  afifairs  of  men.  God,  not  Satan,  is  the  sovereign  commander 
of  all  the  world.  The  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the  world  may  be  in  Satan's 
gift,  but  the  true  and  solid  glory  of  the  world  is  God's  affair,  not  his.  The 
great  activities  of  human  life  are  under  the  guidance  of  Him  Whose  never- 
failing  providence  ordereth  all  things  both  in  heaven  and  earth.  This  vast 
administration  which  covers  and  comprehends  both  State  and  Church,  is 
carried  on  in  the  interests  of  righteousness,  and  any  voice  which  whispers 
in  our  ear  that  to  succeed  we  must  sell  ourself  to  Satan,  is  cajoling  us  to  our 
ruin.  The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof.  Let  us  not  imagine 
that  any  save  this  supreme  proprietor  can  ever  give  us  a  clear  title ;^to  the 
permanent  possession  of  any  single  square  foot  of  it.  It  is  the  meek-spirited 
and  they  only  who  can  expect  to  hold  in  perpetuity,  these  shall  inherit  the 
earth. 


196  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Thus  was  Christ  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are.  He  stood  it.  We, 
with  varying  degrees  of  failure,  we  succumb. 

I  have  tried  to  show  that  His  confident  assertion,  "I  do  always  those 
things  which  please  Him",  finds  nothing  in  the  New  Testament  to  contradict 
it,  and  that  the  right  answer  to  His  question  "  Which  of  you  convicteth  Me 
of  sin  ?  "  is  this,  "  No  man.  Lord  ". 


*  THE  EVIDENTIAL  VALUE  OF  MIRACLES. 

BY     REV.    CHARLKS    AV.    RISHKI^I^     PH.    D., 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Boston  University  School  of  Theology, 

Boston,  Mass. 

The  topic  assigned  me  assumes  that  miracles,  presumably  the  miracles 
of  Jesus  especially  as  reported  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  have  an  evidential 
value. 

To  one  who  stops  to  consider  the  assaults  that  have  been  made  upon 
the  miraculous  element  in  early  Christian  history,  in  the  name  of  phi- 
losophy, science,  history,  and  even  of  ethics,  and  the  consequent  elaborate 
defence  of  miracles  rendered  necessary  by  those  assaults,  the  question  can 
but  suggest  itself  whether  the  recorded  miracles  are  not  rather  a  burden 
than  a  support  to  faith. 

Not  a  few  have  so  thought,  and  have  demanded  that  in  the  interests  of 
Christian  propagandism,  at  least  in  these  days,  we  shall  confess  that  the 
miracle  stories  of  the  Gospels  are  entirely  incredible.  I  cannot  agree  with 
those  who  so  think,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  who  has  thoroughly 
mastered  the  principles  of  a  sound  philosophy,  or  who  recognizes  the 
limitations  of  science,  or  who  comprehends  the  fundamentals  of  historical 
criticism,  can  doubt  the  reality  of  the  miraculous  element  in  the  life  of 
Jesus.  The  denial  of  the  miraculous  is  based  on  a  philosophy  now  falling 
rapidly  into  discredit,  and  upon  a  conception  of  science  and  history  which 
must  fall  when  that  philosophy  falls,  as  fall  it  must,  and  that  soon,  for  it  is 
now  tottering.  The  flood  of  materialism  in  philosophy,  science  and  history 
has  been  outridden  by  the  modern  ark  with  its  considerable  family  of  those 
who  through  all  the  storm  held  serenely  fast  to  the  truth. 

Still  to  those  who  are  influenced  by  that  wholly  absurd  philosophy, 
whether  they  be  found  in  high  places  or  in  lowly,  miracles  must  of  necessity 
appear  impossible.  Some  of  these  people  are  to  be  pitied — perhaps  all  of 
them.  But  some  of  them  are  to  be  condemned  as  pretenders,  particularly 
those  who  profess  to  be  philosophers ;  for  they  have  never  once  looked  at 
the  real  problems  of  philosophy  with  open  eyes. 

But  while  some  are  to  be  pitied,  and  some  are  to  be  condemned,  aU 
need  laboring  with  ;  and  it  is  a  great  temptation  to  enter  here  rather  upon 
an  argument  in  support  of  miracles  than  upon  an  argument  which  makes 
miracles  a  support  to  faith.  I  desist  simply  and  solely  because  I  wish  to 
adhere  to  my  topic,  and  because  I  presume  that  Dr.  Strong  did,  a  few- 
weeks  ago,  all  that  needs  doing  in  this  line,  in  a  single  course  of  lectures. 

Nevertheless,  even  after  philosophy,  science  and  history  have  been 
permitted  to  give  their  testimony,  and  have  been  cross-examined,  and  after 


Delivered  at  the  tourth  Conference,  held  at  (Irace  Episcopal  Church,  January  13,  1904. 

197 


198  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

it  has  been  found  that  they  have  nothing  to  say  against  belief  in  miracles, 
but  that  at  least  two  of  these  three  witnesses,  philosophy  and  history,  ofier 
practically  compulsory  evidence  in  favor  of  miracles,  the  question  still  arises, 
what  is  their  evidential  value  ?  Not  only  what  was  it  to' those  who  saw  the 
miracles  performed,  but  what  is  it  to  us? 

This  question  divides  into  two  parts :  First,  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  miracles  buttress  faith.  The  answer  to  this  is  found  in  the  relation  of 
the  miracles  of  Christ  to  the  claims  of  Christ.  Those  claims  would  have 
been  mere  idle  boasts  had  He  not  wrought  miracles.  Any  one  can  make 
claims;  not  every  man's  deeds  match  his  claims.  When  profession  and 
deed  do  not  correspond  we  rightly  doubt  the  validity  of  the  claim. 

There  were  at  least  two  claims  made  by  Christ  that  demanded  miracle 
for  their  support.  The  first  is  His  claim  of  authority — authority  to  forgive 
sin;  to  control  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth;  to  determine  the  destinies  of 
men.  A  claim  to  authority  in  these  realms  can  be  supported  only  by  the 
exhibition  of  the  divine  power  requisite  to  the  execution  of  such  a  divine 
mission. 

There  is  not  a  little  danger  of  confusion  at  this  point.  Not  infrequently 
we  hear  it  said  that  the  regular  course  of  nature  is  a  better  evidence  of 
the  divine  operation  in  the  world  than  any  irregularity  or  miraculous  opera- 
tions could  be.  And  this  is  true.  Some,  how'ever,  fail  to  see  that  this  does 
not  touch  the  question  as  to  the  attestation  of  Christ's  mission.  We  do  not 
need  miracles  to  show  us  that  there  is  a  God  or  that  He  is  at  work  in  the 
world.  What  we  need  miracles  for  is  to  show  us  that  Christ's  relation  to  the 
Father  is  what  He  said  it  was.  And  particularly  did  the  people  of  His  time 
need  miracles  for  that  purpose.  His  ministry  was  brief.  Time  was  not 
allowed  for  the  development  of  all  those  beneficent  results  which  the  reign 
of  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  men  has  produced  and  which  are  our  best  evidence 
of  His  right  to  reign.  What  was  to  be  done  for  His  generation  had  to  be 
done  quickly.  Hence  miracles  were  a  necessity  at  the  first,  though  for 
purposes  of  attesting  Christ  and  His  apostles  they  became  less  necessary  as 
time  went  on. 

In  view  of  all  these  considerations  it  is  plain  that  the  Jews  were  not 
altogether  in  the  wrong  in  asking  for  a  sign.  Jesus  refused  to  give  this  sign 
for  several  reasons  ;  but  the  legitimacy  of  the  demand  He  did  not  apparently 
deny.  It  was  unfortunately  a  wicked  and  adulterous  generation  that  required 
the  sign.  The  demand  sprang  from  hostility,  not  from  a  spirit  of  honest 
inquiry. 

Now  suppose  that  with  such  extraordinary  claims  and  such  need  of 
attestation  there  had  been  no  extraordinary  deeds  illustrative  of  His  divine 
power,  what  would  have  become  of  His  claims .''  The  people  of  His  day 
simply  could  not  have  acknowledged  them.  The  discrepancy  between  word 
and  deed  would  have  been  too  great. 

Especially  true  is  this  of  the  second  claim  referred  to, — His  claim  of 
being  the  highest  conceivable  manifestation  of  divine  love.  He  who  claims 
practically  infinite  power  and  love  must  not  fail  to  exhibit  them  in  combi- 


THE  EVIDENTIAL   VALUE  OF  MIRACLES.  199 

nation  if  his  claims  are  to  be  believed.  His  claims  to  be  incarnate 
omnipotence  must  be  substantiated  by  omnipotent  works  wrought  during 
the  incarnate  state.  The  claim  to  be  the  incarnation  of  omnipotent  love 
must  be  substantiated  by  omnipotent  works  of  a  benevolent  type.  The 
being  who  claims  the  power  to  do  good  and  who  does  not  do  good  is  rightly 
held  to  be  either  an  impostor  or  unfeeling.  In  view  of  His  claims  Christ 
without  His  miracles  would  be  wholly  anomalous.  The  profession  of  love 
and  power  matched  by  the  exercise  of  power  in  the  interest  of  love  is  a 
consistent  picture. 

The  second  phase  of  the  question  concerning  the  evidential  value  of 
miracles  pertains  to  the  degree  or  amount  of  that  value.  This  again  divides 
into  two  parts  :  First,  do  the  miracles  compel  assent?  and  second,  are  they 
sufficient  as  evidence  ? 

The  first  of  these  questions  does  not  admit  either  of  a  categorical 
affirmative  or  negative.  Very  certain  is  it  that  those  miracle  stories  do  not 
directly  compel  our  assent  to  Christ's  claims.  Without  them  we  could  not 
believe  ;  but  for  many  they  are  merely  the  condition  of  belief,  not  its 
ground.  They  are  necessary  to  a  consistent  picture,  and  a  consistent 
picture  tells  for  credibility.  But  the  question  still  remains  unanswered 
whether  the  picture  is  imaginary  or  real,  and  the  answer  to  that  question  is 
to  be  sought  in  the  whole  realm  of  Christian  evidences.  It  may  be  said, 
however,  that  one  who  unhesitatingly  accepts  the  fact  of  Christ's  miracles 
must  accept  Christ's  claims;  and  there  are  unnumbered  multitudes  who  do 
accept  both  His  miracles  and  His  claims.  Those  with  whom  the  miracles 
are  themselves  a  problem  cannot,  of  course,  use  them  as  a  strong  support 
of  faith.  With  them  the  correctness  of  the  consistent  picture  is  still  in 
doubt. 

This  leads  to  the  second  point,  namely,  whether  the  miracles  are 
sufficient  evidence.  It  is  plain  that  they  are  not.  Nor  are  they  the  best 
evidence.  One  might  accept  the  miracles  and  so  the  claims  of  Christ 
without  becoming  a  practical  Christian.  Only  that  evidence  which  results 
in  practical  Christian  living  is  adequate.  Miracles  have  their  place,  but 
they  cannot  do  everything.  We  must  have  them,  but  they  are  by  no  means 
our  sole  reliance. 

So  much  then  for  the  general  question  of  the  evidential  value  of 
miracles.  It  is  time  to  come  to  the  special  question  as  to  the  evidential 
value  of  miracles  as  seen  in  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

It  is  a  generally  recognized  fact  that  this  Gospel  was  written  with  the 
object  of  pjoducing  belief  in  Christ  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  never 
seen  Him  and  it  is  worth  noting  that  it  was  the  whole  Gospel,  not  the 
miracles  alone,  that  was  to  produce  faith.  "These  things  were  written", 
says  John,  that  is,  all  these  things,  "that  ye  might  believe  ".  Furthermore 
we  find  that  Jesus  appealed  to  His  whole  ministry  in  proof  of  His  mission, 
and  not  to  His  miracles  alone  or  chiefly. 

I  think  that  at  this  point  there  is  considerable  misunderstanding.  Jesus 
says  (10:37,  3.S) : — "If  I  do  not  the  works  of  My  Father,  believe  Me  not 


200  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

But  if  I  do  them,  though  ye  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works :  that  ye  may 
know  and  understand  that  the  Father  is  in  Me,  and  I  in  the  Father  ".  And 
again  (14:11): — "Believe  Me  that  lam  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in 
Me  :  or  else  believe  Me  for  the  very  works'  sake  ". 

These  passages,  with  others,  have,  I  think,  been  generally  understood 
as  Christ's  appeal  to  the  convincing  power  of  His  miracles.  Most  readers, 
when  they  read  these  passages,  mentally  substitute  miracles  for  works, 
as  though  He  had  said  believe  Me  for  the  sake,  or  on  account  of  the 
miracles. 

I  cannot  help  feeling  that  this  is  an  erroneous  interpretation.  Doubtless 
His  works  include  His  miracles,  but  His  miracles  are  by  no  means  the 
whole  of  His  works.  The  word  translated  "work"  is  ^r^(9«,  plural  erga. 
The  word  translated  "  miracle  "  is  semeion,  plural  semeia.  Jesus  is  never 
represented  as  appealing  to  His  semeia,  but  always  to  His  erga.  Had  He 
meant  to  appeal  to  His  miracles  only  as  attesting  His  nature  and  mission, 
He  would  have  used  the  other  word.  Besides,  His  references  to  His  works 
in  other  connections  show  that  they  were  not  miracles  alone.  In  chapter 
5:36,  He  says:  "The  works  which  the  Father  hath  given  Me  to  accom- 
plish, the  very  works  that  I  do,  bear  witness  of  Me".  And  in  10:32, 
"  Many  good  works  have  I  showed  you  from  the  Father ;  for  which  of  those 
works  do  ye  stone  Me?"  The  Jews  answered  Him:  "  For  a  good  work 
we  stone  Thee  not,  but  for  blasphemy  ".  And  in  10  :37,  "  If  I  do  not  the 
works  of  My  Father,  believe  Me  not ".  Also  9:4,  "I  must  work  the  works 
of  Him  that  sent  Me,  while  it  is  day  ". 

The  works  of  the  Father — the  works  that  the  Father  gave  Him  to 
accomplish !  Were  these  works  miracles  only  ?  Did  the  Father  send  His 
Son  into  the  world  for  the  sole  purpose  of  working  miracles  ?  Great  as  they 
were,  and  great  as  was  their  significance,  it  is  impossible  that  the  miracles 
of  Jesus  exhausted  His  mission,  and  that  everything  He  did  and  said  over 
and  above  this  was  no  part  of  the  Father's  purpose  in  Him.  It  is  unbelieve- 
able  that  all  those  good  works  in  the  ordinary  human  sense  of  faithfulness 
to  duty,  loyalty  to  principle,  courage  in  the  execution  of  one's  tasks  in  the 
midst  of  threatening  danger,  renunciation  of  the  material  in  the  interest  of 
the  spiritual,  manifestation  of  sympathy,  love,  and  human  interest  in  human 
interests — I  say  it  is  unbelievable  that  these  were  no  part  of  the  works  of  the 
Father  given  to  Jesus  to  accomplish.  If  the  miraculous  works  are  necessary 
as  a  credential,  equally  so  are  these  ordinary,  every-day  good  works  neces- 
sary. And  if  we  may  judge  from  the  record,  it  was  just  these  plain  and 
homely  good  works  that  engaged  the  greater  part  of  His  time.  The  miracles 
were  the  exceptional  aspect  of  His  activity.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  when 
He  spoke  of  His  works  He  included  His  miracles;  but  He  certainly  did  not 
confine  His  thought  to  them. 

It  is  in  strict  accordance  with  this  view  of  the  case  that  men  are  repre- 
sented as  believing  in  Jesus  because  of  His  words.  Such  a  case  we  have  in 
the  Samaritan  mentioned  in  4:41  ;  also  in  the  officers  who  were  sent  to 
arrest  Christ,  but  who  returned  and  said :     "  Never  man  spake  like  this 


THE  KlIDKNTJAL    \ALUE  OF  MIRACLES.  2or 

man  '"  (7  :46) ;  and  of  many  Jews  of  whom  it  is  said  that  while  "  He  spake 
these  words  many  believed  on  Him"  (7  :3o).  In  line  with  this  also  is  the 
fact  that  His  miracles  did  not  always  either  produce  or  sustain  faith  in  Him. 
In  12  :  37  we  read  "  That  though  He  had  done  so  many  semeia  before  them, 
yet  they  believed  not  on  Him  " ;  and  again  in  chapter  6,  it  is  said  that  after 
certain  words  of  Christ,  many  of  His  disciples  went  back  and  walked  no 
more  with  Him.     This,  of  course,  was  in  spite  of  His  miracles. 

On  the  other  hand  many  did,  apparently  believe  because  of  His  miracles. 
We  have  accounts  of  such  in  2  :  23  ;  and  in  3  :  2,  when  Nicodemus  is  repre- 
sented as  recognizing  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus  through  His  miracles. 
The  woman  of  Samaria  also  believed  Him  to  be  the  Messiah  because  of  His 
miraculous  knowledge  of  her  life.  Furthermore,  Jesus  apparently  felt  that 
His  miracles  ought  to  be  taken  into  account  in  the  determination  of  men's 
relation  to  Him.  "Though  ye  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works"  (10:38). 
*'  If  I  had  not  done  among  them  the  works  which  none  other  did,  they  had 
not  had  sin  "  (15  :24).  These  passages  do  not  refer  to  His  miracles  alone, 
but  they  do,  nevertheless,  refer  to  the  miracles.  He  had  lived  His  life  among 
them  on  high  levels.  Deed  miraculous  and  deed  non-miraculous  had  matched 
word  in  Him.  His  claims  had  been  high,  but  His  works  had  been  high  also. 
There  was  no  excuse  for  unbelief.  So  He  thought  and  so  we  think.  That 
though  they  had  seen  Him  perform  so  many  miracles  and  so  many  other 
good  works,  all  correspondent  to  His  demands  upon  men,  and  yet  that  they 
should  not  yield  to  His  demands,  was  reprehensible  indeed. 

And  yet  Christ  did  not  work  His  miracles  for  the  purpose  of  producing 
belief  in  Him.  I  am  aware  that  the  assertion  I  have  just  made  is  contrary 
to  the  received  opinion,  according  to  which  He  felt  that  in  order  to  sustain 
His  high  claims  He  must  attest  Himself  by  miracles  which  He  wrought  as 
a  credential  of  His  authority. 

I  can,  perhaps,  express  my  own  understanding  of  this  matter  in  this 
way:  Jesus  knew  full  well  that  His  miracles  would  tend  to  produce  faith  in 
Him,  and  He  felt  that  it  was  right  that  they  should  contribute  to  this  result; 
and  yet  those  facts  had  no  influence  whatever  in  prompting  Him  to  work 
His  miracles,  all  of  which  would  have  been  wrought  if  they  had  been  of  no 
evidential  value  in  the  sense  of  producing  or  sustaining  faith  in  Him.  I  am 
thoroughly  convinced  that  this  is  so  for  all  the  miracles  mentioned  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  though  I  admit  that  one  or  two  passages  seem  on  the  surface 
to  suggest  a  few  exceptions. 

In  order  that  the  facts  may  be  all  brought  before  you  I  take  up  first 
those  which  militate  against  my  contention,  and  then  those  which  seem  to 
me  to  support  it. 

The  first  argument  which  might  be  used  in  favor  of  the  ordinary  view  is 
that  the  word  so  frequently  translated  miracle  should  be  translated  sign. 
When  Jesus  turned  the  water  into  wine  it  is  said,  "  This  beginning  of  signs 
did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee,  and  manifested  forth  His  glory  "  (2:11).  Nico- 
demus said  :  "  No  man  can  do  these  signs  that  Thou  doest  except  God  be 
with  him  "  (3  :  2).     Jesus  said  to  certain  persons  :     "  Ye  seek  Me,  not  because 


202  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ye  saw  the  signs,  but  because  ye  did  eat  of  the  loaves,  and  were  filled  "  (6  :  26). 
Many  of  the  people  said :  "When  Christ  cometh,  will  He  do  more  signs 
than  these  which  this  man  hath  done?"  (7:31.)  And  so  whenever  in  our 
King  James  translation  of  John,  we  read  "  miracles  ",  we  should  literally 
translate  "  signs  ".  In  other  words  these  miraculous  works  are  unquestion- 
ably looked  upon  as  signs — signs  of  the  divine  power  and  mission  of  Jesus. 
Does  not  that  seem  to  show  that  Jesus  wrought  these  works  in  order  to 
prove  His  claims  ?  The  answer  to  this  must  be  an  emphatic  "  No  ".  It  is 
one  thing  to  say  that  they  are  signs  and  it  is  quite  another  to  say  that  they 
were  wrought  for  the  purpose  of  being  signs.  I  think,  therefore,  that  this 
consideration  has  no  weight. 

There  are  two  miracles  recorded  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  which  are  referred 
to  by  Christ  in  language  which  seems  to  indicate  that  they  were  wrought  for 
the  purpose  of  producing  faith.  The  first  one  is  the  case  of  the  man  who 
was  born  blind.  When  His  disciples  asked  "  Who  sinned,  this  man  or  his 
parents,  that  he  was  born  blind  ",  Jesus  answered,  "  Neither  did  this  man 
sin,  nor  his  parents,  but  that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made  manifest  in 
him  "  (9  : 2,  3).  If  we  applied  the  ordinary  view  to  this  it  would  have  to  be 
understood  as  saying  that  the  blindness  was  not  caused  by  the  sin  either  of 
the  man  or  his  parents,  but  was  brought  upon  him  in  order  that  an  opportu- 
nity should  be  presented  for  making  manifest  the  works  of  God.  But  the 
implications  of  such  an  interpretation  are  obnoxious  in  the  highest  degree. 
We  cannot,  in  this  day,  bring  ourselves  to  believe  that  God  would  visit 
blindness  for  a  long  term  of  years  upon  any  one  in  order  to  show  that  He 
had  the  power  and  love  requisite  to  restore  him  to  sight. 

I  pass  this  case  for  the  present  to  take  up  the  other  similar  one.  When 
Jesus  was  informed  that  Lazarus  was  sick,  He  said  :  "  This  sickness  is  not 
unto  death,  but  for  the  glory  of  God,  that  the  Son  of  God  might  be  glorified 
thereby"  (11  14).  Here  again  we  seem  to  be  told  that  a  loved  friend  of 
Jesus  was  made  sick  and  a  whole  family  of  Jesus'  dearest  friends  plunged 
into  heartbreaking  sorrow  in  order  to  give  the  Father  an  opportunity  to 
glorify  both  Himself  and  His  Son.  So  it  appears  to  say,  but  really  it  does 
not  seem  to  describe  the  action  of  God  as  you  and  I  think  of  God  in  the 
light  of  the  teachings  of  Christ.  Was  God  so  hard  put  to  it  that  He  had  to 
create  cases  of  blindness  and  sickness  and  death  in  order  to  show  what  His 
Son  could  do  ?  Without  any  disposition  to  employ  ridicule,  I  must  say  that 
one  would  have  to  think  of  Palestine  as  a  remarkably  healthy  country  if  it 
did  not  furnish  blind  and  sick  in  plenty  upon  whom  Christ  could  exercise 
His  miraculous  power,  without  the  necessity  of  blinding  and  sickening  men 
in  order  to  furnish  opportunity  for  Him  to  prove  His  love  and  power. 

There  must  be  some  other  way  of  interpreting  these  passages  more 
consonant  with  the  love  and  wisdom  of  God.  And  hints  of  that  other  way 
we  have  in  other  passages.  In  5  :  20,  we  read  that  "  The  Father  loveth  the 
Son,  and  showeth  Him  all  things  that  Himself  doeth ;  and  He  will  show 
Him  greater  works  than  these,  that  ye  may  marvel".  Here  God  is  repre- 
sented as  doing  great  works  for  the  purpose  of  producing  surprise, — a  motive 


THE  El'IDENTIAI.    VALUE  OF  MIRACLES.  203 

so  unworthy  of  God  that  we  feel  practically  sure  there  must  be  some  mis- 
understanding. In  12  :  37-40  we  read  :  "  But  though  He  had  done  so  many 
miracles  before  them,  yet  they  believed  not  on  llim  ;  that  the  word  of  Isaiah, 
the  prophet  might  be  fulfilled  *  *  *  For  this  cause  they  could  not 
believe,  for  that  Isaiah  said  again,  He  hath  blinded  their  eyes,  and  He 
hardened  their  hearts  ".  If  we  take  this  language  at  what  it  literally  says, 
we  shall  be  obliged  to  believe  that  God  actually  prevented  some  from 
believing  in  order  to  secure  the  fulfilment  of  a  prophecy.  In  17:12,  Jesus 
says :  "  Those  that  Thou  gavest  Me  I  have  kept,  and  none  of  them  is  lost 
but  the  son  of  perdition;  that  the  Scripture  might  be  fulfilled  ".  This  is  a 
case  in  which  one  is  even  said  to  be  lost  in  order  that  the  Scripture  might  be 
fulfilled.  Works  of  God  done  in  order  to  produce  wonder;  men  rendered 
incapable  of  belief  in  order  that  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  might  be  fulfilled ;  a 
soul  lost  in  order  that  a  passage  in  a  psalm  might  be  fulfilled  !  If  we  take 
the  words  "  In  order  that "  literally — if  we  understand  them  as  expressing 
the  prompting  motive — we  must  believe  such  teaching  to  be  part  of  the 
teaching  of  Christ  Himself.  I,  for  one,  revolt,  and  refuse  to  take  the 
language  literally.  What  is  really  meant  is  that  great  works  of  God  shall  be 
done,  and  that  men  shall  marvel ;  that  men  did  not  believe  and  thereby 
prophecy  was  fulfilled  ;  that  a  soul  was  lost,  and  thus  a  psalm  was  paralleled 
in  the  history  of  Christ,  or  perhaps  that  thus  we  knew  the  psalm  to  be  in 
part  Messianic. 

But  there  is  about  as  much  reason  for  revolting  from  the  literalness  that 
would  have  us  believe  that  a  man  was  born  blind,  or  caused  to  sicken  and 
die  in  order  that  Christ  might  glorify  Himself  and  secure  the  belief  of  the 
onlookers  by  His  works  of  restoration  to  sight  and  life.  The  words  "  in 
order  that "  must  not  always  be  taken  as  expressing  motive  ;  sometimes  they 
express  result.  Such  is  the  case  here.  A  man  was  born  blind  and  as  a 
result  some  will  believe  in  Christ  when  they  see  Him  give  the  blind  man  His 
sight.  A  man  sickened  and  died  and  as  a  result  Christ  will  be  glorified 
when  men  see  Him  restore  the  dead  man  to  life.  This  interpretation  is 
rational  and  Christian,  even  if  not  warranted  by  the  construction.  The 
other,  though  demanded  by  the  construction  is  irrational  and  unchristian. 
But  if  the  rational  and  Christian  interpretation  is  to  be  accepted,  then  those 
passages  do  not  teach  that  Jesus  healed  in  order  to  produce  faith.  So  that 
there  is  nothing  left  to  show  that  He  ever  wrought  miracles  for  that  purpose 
or  with  that  motive. 

Taking  up,  now,  the  facts  which  seem  to  substantiate  the  view  I  here 
maintain,  it  must  be  noticed  that  when  asked  to  show  a  sign  He  either 
avoided  or  declined  the  request.  True,  those  who  demanded  a  sign  did  so 
in  a  spirit  of  hostility.  But  it  is  incredible  that  One  Who  could  do  the  won- 
derful things  recorded  in  John  could  not  have  turned  hostility  into  faith  if 
He  had  chosen  to  do  so.  That  He  did  not  do  so  is  the  strongest  evidence 
conceivable  that  His  miracles  were  never  wrought  with  such  a  motive. 

An  examination  of  the  real  motives  of  Jesus  in  the  performance  of  His 
miracles,  taking  them  one  by  one,  shows  that  He  was  prompted  by  the 


204  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

desire  to  bless  and  benefit  men  individually  and  collectively.  His  miracles 
were  credentials,  but  they  would  have  been  wrought  if  they  had  been 
entirely  barren  of  such  a  result.  They  sprang,  not  from  His  desire  to 
make  men  believe  on  Him,  but  from  His  desire  to  do  men  good. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  why  should  He  not  have  wrought  miracles  for  the 
purpose  of  producing  faith  in  Him  ?  Would  it  not  have  been  a  worthy  use 
of  His  miraculous  power  ?  Surely  it  would  so  appear.  And  yet,  while  we 
cannot  give  our  Lord's  reasons  for  holding  Himself  with  inflexible  firmness 
to  the  thought  of  doing  some  good  instead  of  winning  their  faith,  we  cannot 
be  too  thankful  that  He  did  just  as  He  did.  In  the  first  place,  on  the  facts 
as  here  set  forth,  must  all  attempts  to  discredit  His  miracles  by  placing  Him 
in  the  ranks  of  the  wonder-workers  go  to  pieces.  It  is  just  the  motive  of 
the  wonder-worker  that  his  deeds  shall  in  some  degree  or  manner  increase 
the  observers'  esteem  for  the  performer.  Jesus  sought  nothing  in  return 
for  His  miracles — not  even  the  faith  in  Himself  which  would  have  resulted 
in  fresh  benefit  to  the  believer.  We  have  before  us  in  Christ  the  portrait  of 
one  who  did  His  good  deeds,  whether  miraculous  or  not,  out  of  a  loving 
heart,  with  absolutely  no  mixture  of  any  other  motive.  Closely  connected 
with  this  is  a  second  thought.  The  example  of  Christ  as  He  is  thus  set  be- 
fore us  rebukes  more  effectually  much  of  the  unchristian  effort  of  ministers 
and  churches  in  all  ages.  Is  it  not  true  that  we  seek  additions  to  our 
churches,  in  part  at  least,  because  of  the  strength  those  additions  can  bring 
to  the  church  ?  And  does  not  this  lead  to  the  feeling  that  as  some  can  aid  the 
church  more  than  others  the  stronger  ones  should  be  most  coveted  ?  Yes, 
the  church  does  all  its  faithful  adherents  more  good  than  they  do  it ;  but 
would  not  our  methods  and  results  be  different  if  we  were  prompted  as 
Jesus  was,  wholly  and  solely  by  the  spirit  of  love  ?  And  this  naturally  leads 
to  a  third  thought,  Jesus  stands  higher  in  the  estimation  of  the  world  today 
because  He  did  His  works  out  of  a  spirit  of  love  than  He  would  had  He 
mixed  with  it  a  desire  to  secure  their  faith  in  Him.  And  here  is  the 
evidential  value  of  miracles  in  its  highest  form.  They  prove  His  power, 
but  they  also  prove  His  love.  Men  might  wonder  at  His  power ;  they  adore 
Him  for  His  love.  The  world  will  be  won  to  Christ  not  because  He  had 
the  omnipotent  power  of  God  in  Him,  but  because  He  had  in  Him  God's 
infinite  love.     And  this  is  the  true  evidential  value  of  miracles. 


*  FREEDOM  THROUGH  THE  TRUTH. 

(St.  John  8:31-36.) 

by  rkv.  kverktt  d.  burr,  i).  13., 

I'ASTOR    OF    THE     FiRST     BAPTIST     CHURCH     IN     NeWTON,     NeWTON     CENTRE,     MaSS. 

In  discussing  this  theme,  which  has  its  place  in  a  series  of  expositions 
of  this  Gospel,  we  must  adhere  rigidly  to  the  terms  of  the  Gospel  in  the 
definition  of  truth,  of  freedom,  and  the  relation  between  the  two. 

Truth  in  this  Gospel  is  not  an  impersonal  proposition,  not  a  series  of 
definitions,  no  metaphysical  statement,  nor  subjective  conception,  but 
objectively  real,  personally  embodied,  livingly  interpreted. 

Freedom  is  not  a  deliverance  from  external  shackles  by  mechanical 
means,  not  the  abrogation  of  control,  but  the  emancipation  of  life  to  mani- 
fest itself  in  various  forms,  a  process  working  not  from  without  inward,  but 
from  within  outward. 

As  the  truth  is  vital  the  freedom  must  be  by  process,  evolutionary  and 
dynamic.  Such  a  freedom  will  be  the  efflorescence  of  life  and  will  follow 
the  truth  as  naturally  and  inevitably  as  the  fruit  results  from  the  forces 
resident  in  the  root.  From  the  point  of  view  of  John's  Gospel,  religion  is 
divine  life  in  the  human  soul. 

Dejjuition  of  Urjus.  Jesus  always  explained  His  Gospel  in  terms  of 
life.  "  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life  ".  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have 
life  ".  In  endeavoring  to  explain  the  principles  of  His  Gospel  and  the  rela- 
tions which  are  to  subsist  between  Himself  and  His  followers,  He  chose 
some  vital  thing,  some  living  organism  as,  for  example,  the  vine,  as  alone  an 
adequate  explanation  of  the  relation  which  is  to  exist  between  Himself  and 
the  believer.  The  indictment  of  Jesus  against  the  religious  leaders  and  the 
people  of  His  day  was  that  they  would  not  come  unto  Him  that  they  might 
have  life.  They  went  to  the  philosophers  for  theories,  to  the  rabbis  for  pre- 
cepts ;  they  went  to  the  prophets  for  principles,  and  to  the  Mosaic  code  for 
ceremonies ;  but  they  would  not  come  unto  Him  that  they  might  have  life. 
This  indictment  is  in  force  today.  There  is  manifest  reluctance  to  accept 
the  gift  which  Christ  alone  can  give. 

Through  the  Christian  centuries  men  have  been  forming  and  reform- 
ing creeds  while  Jesus  gave  the  truth  which  would  transform  character. 
Even  so  learned  a  theologian  and  so  prominent  a  Christian  leader  as 
President  Patton,  of  Princeton,  was  asked  whether  in  his  judgment  Chris- 
tianity was  a  dogma  or  a  life,  and  he  replied,  "  It  is  a  dogma  ".  We  see 
the  fallacy  of  this  definition  when  we  take  it  back  to  Jesus  and  try  to  imag- 

*  Delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  (Iracc  Episcopal  Church,  January  i -i,  1904. 

205 


2o6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ine  Him  saying,  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  dogma,  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantly". 

But  the  learned  president  is  not  the  only  offender  in  this  regard. 
According  to  our  own  point  of  view  we  are  apt  to  say  that  religion  consists 
in  a  method  of  organization,  a  mode  of  worship,  or  a  statement  of  doctrine, 
and  so  make  it  a  thing  of  formulae,  creeds,  ceremonies,  or  priesthoods, 
according  to  the  degree  of  our  religious  susceptibility,  or  according  to  our 
religious  education,  or  according  to  our  loyalty  to  tradition,  as  though  these 
things  were  in  themselves  the  ends  to  be  sought  and  not  only  means  to  one 
single  end.  It  was  with  reference  to  that  sacred  thing,  the  law,  that  Paul 
said  it  is  a  "  schoolmaster  to  lead  to  Christ 


-i 


What  was  true  of  the  most  perfect  expression  of  religious  life  in  the 
olden  time  is  true  of  everything  else  religious,  ecclesiastic,  doctrinal,  that 
their  only  worth  is  in  •  their  usefulness  in  leading  to  a  personal  Christ. 
Jesus  found  religion  sinking  into  a  creed  and  a  ceremony.  He  presented 
His  Gospel  not  as  a  dogma  to  be  believed,  a  statement  to  be  discussed,  or 
a  task  to  be  performed,  but  a  life  to  be  lived.  The  beginning  of  religious 
life  is  not  the  reception  of  a  ceremony,  subscription  to  a  creed,  or  submission 
to  an  ordinance,  but  contact  with  a  person. 

His  invitations  were  always  personal.  "Come  unto  J/^"  was  fre 
quently  upon  His  lips.  The  only  truth  which  the  believer  was  asked  to  accept 
was  the  truth  embodied  in  Himself.  "  I  am  the  truth ".  The  code  of 
morals,  the  mode  of  conduct,  the  standard  of  life,  were  to  be  found  in  Him- 
self. "  I  am  the  way".  Indeed,  the  whole  content  of  religion  was  defined 
in  personal  relations  to  Himself — "  I  am  the  life  ".  He  offered  Himself  as 
Master  and  Lord,  and  relied  upon  the  personal  loyalty  of  His  disciples  to 
sustain  them  in  their  obedience  to  Him.  He  offered  the  pleasure  of  associ- 
ation with  Him  as  a  sufficient  compensation  for  the  hardships  of  service, 
even  though  it  involved  denial  of  self  and  the  bearing  of  the  cross.  Devo- 
tion to  the  personal  Christ  was  to  be  at  once  the  impulse  and  reward  for 
every  service.  It  is  a  person,  not  a  dogma,  that  invites  belief;  a  person,  not 
a  law,  which  invites  obedience.  "  In  Him  is  life  and  the  life  is  the  light  of 
men  ".  He  inspires  the  thought,  awakens  the  conscience,  holds  the  heart, 
energizes  the  will.  He  is  Himself  the  life-blood  of  Christianity,  and  as  such 
the  giver  of  life  to  those  who  receive  Him.  Nothing  can  create  life  but  life 
itself.  "  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life  ".  Jesus  condemned  the  people  of 
His  time  because  in  the  light  of  overwhelming  testimony  concerning  Him- 
self they  still  rejected  Him.  He  presents  four  witnesses  as  establishing  His 
claims  upon  the  supreme  attention  of  the  thinkers  of  His  day. 

First,  the  testimony  of  John.  This  is  the  more  important  and  should 
have  been  the  more  impressive  because  John  was  led  to  the  acceptance  of 
Jesus  by  the  resistless  argument  of  His  own  personality.  John  was  slow  to 
accept  Jesus  because  of  his  religious  preconceptions.  He  had  planned  a 
program  for  Jesus  in  which  he  thought  Jesus  would  perfectly  acquiesce. 
He  was,  therefore,  greatly  amazed  to  have  Jesus  adopt  a  different  mode  of 
jirocedure,  and  could  scarcely  believe  Him  to  be  the  promised  Messiah.     So 


FREEDOM  THROUGH  THE  TRUTH.  207 

he  sent  messengers  to  ascertain  whether  He  were  indeed  the  Christ.  He 
had  predicted  the  axe  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  the  winnowing  fan  and  the 
refining  fire.  But  hearing  of  the  beneficent  services  which  Jesus  was 
rendering  to  humanity  in  heaUng  the  sick,  cleansing  the  lepers,  preaching 
to  the  poor,  he  was  perplexed  beyond  measure.  Nevertheless,  the  testimony 
of  John  when  once  convinced,  was  direct  and  unequivocal.  He  stripped 
the  veil  which  hid  Christ's  glory.  He  quickened  the  vision  of  his  contem- 
poraries, stimulated  their  conscience,  stirred  the  apathy  of  the  people  of  His 
time. 

The  testimony  of  the  works  of  Christ  were  even  more  convincing.  The 
activities  of  His  hand  had  a  divine  but  self-evidencing  force  which  con- 
firmed and  established  His  claims.  The  works  of  Christ  were  His  normal 
activities  and  deeds,  which  expressed  the  nature  and  compass  of  His  will 
and  indicated  the  quality  of  His  personality.  These  works  were  not  limited 
to  the  miracles  of  healing,  the  multiplication  of  the  loaves,  the  increase  of 
the  wine,  the  raising  of  the  dead,  but  the  whole  of  His  service ;  His  total 
activity  He  presented  in  testimony  as  a  self-revelation,  the  disclosure  of  His 
consecration,  and  they  are  all  of  such  a  character  as  to  proclaim  His  divine 
commission.  This  entire  service  of  Christ,  reaching  special  expression  in 
certain  typical  acts  and  deeds  could  not  but  confirm  beyond  a  challenge  the 
testimony  of  John. 

But  as  though  this  were  not  enough,  the  testimony  of  the  Father  was 
added.  Jesus  was  not  content  to  present  John's  testimony  or  the  evidence 
of  His  works  as  the  complete  vindication  of  His  claims.  He  said,  "  There 
is  another  that  beareth  witness  concerning  Me  ",  "  The  Father  which  hath 
sent  Me".  At  His  baptism  the  voice  of  the  Father  proclaimed  Him  to  be 
His  accepted  Son,  but,  more  than  that,  there  accompanied  Jesus  in  all  His 
life  and  service  an  incontrovertible  evidence  of  a  deific  presence  as,  e.  g., 
the  angel  song  at  His  birth,  the  unusual  providence  which  protected  His 
childhood,  the  opening  of  the  heavens  at  His  baptism,  the  pervasive  pres- 
ence which  was  manifest  in  all  His  acts  and  made  His  ministry  so  influ- 
ential and  impressive.  He  was  the  manifestation  of  the  Father's  glory,  the 
express  image  of  His  person. 

As  though  to  leave  no  witness  unsummoned  into  court,  there  is  added 
to  all  the  evidence  the  testiniony  of  the  Scriptures.  "  They  testify  of  Me  ". 
Jesus"  criticism  is  that  in  searching  the  written  word  they  were  missing  the 
living  word.  He  admits  their  prolonged  and  eager  study  of  the  Scriptures, 
approves  their  motives  in  the  research,  but  He  criticises  the  superstitious 
idea  that  in  the  possession  of  the  letter  they  had  eternal  life.  "  In  them  ye 
think  ye  have  eternal  life,  but  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me,  and  ye 
will  not  come  to  Me  that  ye  might  have  life  ". 

This,  then,  is  the  indictment  of  Jesus  against  the  people  of  His  time. 
It  is  as  true  today.  For,  according  to  our  point  of  view  or  our  sense  of 
need,  we  look  to  the  schools  for  theory,  to  the  church  for  ceremony,  to 
philosophy  for  instruction,  to  priests  for  authority,  to  reason  for  light,  to 
ordinances  for  inspiration,  to  confession  for  peace  of  soul,  but  will  not  go 


2o8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

to  Christ  that  we  may  have  life.  And  in  consequence  the  religious  world  of 
today  is  serving  in  many  a  house  of  bondage,  the  bondage  of  the  letter,  the 
bondage  of  form,  the  bondage  of  tradition,  the  bondage  of  definition,  from 
which  only  the  truth  as  it  is  in  the  personal  Christ  can  ever  give  a  real 
emancipation, — that  is,  the  emancipation  of  life. 

The  Romanist  presents  an  infallible  church  as  the  end  of  all  revelation, 
the  seat  of  all  authority.  The  Protestant  presents  an  infallible  book,  but 
neither  book  nor  church  has  life  or  can  give  life.  They  are  but  the  staff  of 
the  prophet  laid  upon  the  child  of  the  Shunamite.  They  are  but  dead 
sticks, — creeds,  ordinances,  doctrines,  priests,  preachers,^ — without  the  vital 
and  vitalizing  contact  with  the  living  Christ.  As  the  living  person  of  the 
prophet  must  needs  be  stretched  upon  the  dead,  lip  to  lip,  nerve  to  nerve, 
forehead  to  forehead,  nostril  to  nostril,  heart  to  heart,  limb  to  limb,  so  must 
the  personal  character,  thought,  purpose  and  life  of  the  living  Christ  be 
brought  into  touch  with  receptive  souls.  Jesus  takes  the  high  ground  with 
reference  to  the  inspired  Scriptures  which  He  has  also  taken  with  reference 
to  other  sacred  objects,  viz. :  the  temple  and  the  Sabbath, 

You  call  the  temple  sacred  and  the  altar  a  heavenly  shrine  ?  In  what 
does  their  sanctity  consist .''  There  is  One  greater  than  the  temple  and  only 
so  far  forth  as  the  sacred  structure  fulfills  its  mission  in  expressing  the 
presence  of  the  greater  One  has  it  any  sanctity.  There  is  one  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath.  The  Sabbath  is  not  an  end  in  itself  but  is  of  worth  only  as  it  gives 
evidence  of  the  paramount  claims  of  Him  Who  is  its  Lord.  So  of  the  Script- 
ures. They  are  not  sacred  in  themselves  except  as  they  testify  of  Christ. 
The  bare  possession  of  the  written  word,  the  prolonged  examination  of  its 
mere  letter,  neither  nor  both  is  the  condition  of  eternal  life.  The  study  of 
the  Scriptures  which  is  stimulated  by  the  vague  idea  that  it  is  religion,  or 
that  it  has  life,  or  can  give  life,  is  illusive.  We  may  think  that  in  them  we 
have  eternal  life,  but  our  Lord  would  undeceive  us.  The  Scriptures  are 
not  religion,  nor  do  they  contain  religion  any  more  than  a  captain's  chart  is 
navigation,  or  contains  the  knowledge  of  navigation,  or  a  book  of  tactics 
contains  warfare,  or  a  knowledge  of  warfare,  or  a  government  treatise  on  the 
rotation  of  crops  contains  agriculture  or  a  knowledge  of  farming.  The 
Scriptures  are  a  description  of  religion.  They  are  a  testimony  to  the  personal 
Christ.  The  Scriptures  are  not  the  truth.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  truth.  No 
book,  no  church,  no  priesthood,  nor  ritual,  nor  creed,  nor  mode  of  worship 
may  diminish  by  one  hair's  breadth  the  immediacy  of  personal  contact  of 
the  human  heart  with  the  living  personal  Christ.  When  Jesus  Christ  lays 
hold  of  a  man  so  that  the  spirit  of  Christ  becomes  the  determinative  energy 
of  his  life,  that  man  is  Christian  and  nothing  else  nor  many  things  combined 
can  make  him  Christian. 

"  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life  ".  "  If  the  Son  make  you  free  ye  shall 
be  free  indeed  ".  This  is  all  there  is  to  it — the  personal  relation  with  the 
personal  Christ.  Christ  is  the  one  thing  in  the  Christian  life.  The  genius 
of  this  experience  called  Christian  is  being  wrought  into  Him.  There  is  only 
one  thing  which  so  connects  a  branch  of  the  vine  with  the  vine  as  to  make 


FREEDOM  THROUGH  THE  TRUTH.  209 

it  a  branch,  and  that  is  the  life  of  the  vine  which  makes  itself  felt  in  the 
branch.  There  is  only  one  thing  which  involves  a  limb  in  the  body  so  as 
to  make  it  a  member  of  that  organic  thing  called  the  body  and  that  is  the 
life  of  the  body  which  courses  through  it.  In  the  same  way  there  is  only 
one  thing  which  makes  a  man  Christian  and  that  is  his  vital  contact  with 
Christ  so  that  the  thought  of  Christ  shall  inspire  his  mind,  the  love  of  Christ 
move  his  heart,  the  purpose  of  Christ  gird  his  will,  the  law  of  Christ  confirm 
his  conscience.  The  weakness  of  Christianity  is  that  we  make  it  complex 
and  composite,  and  of  our  own  conceits  forge  the  chains  which  hold  us  in 
tether. 

Life  is  the  thing.  This  simple  fact  is  the  whole  of  it.  We  make  it  con- 
sist of  many  things  added  together  instead  of  one  simple,  omnipotent, 
supreme  fact.  We  have  heard  so  much  about  conviction  and  sentiment, 
about  doctrines  and  ceremonies  that  we  have  come  to  consider  Christianity 
as  a  matter  of  opinion,  or  of  feeling,  but  Christianity  is  simply  and  solely  a 
matter  of  divine  life  in  the  human  soul,  and  there  is  no  matter  of  dogma,  or 
sentiment,  or  ceremony  about  it.  Life  is  the  thing.  When  divinely  alive 
we  may  find  our  emancipation  and  leave  the  burden  of  philosophy,  the 
thraldom  of  tradition,  the  shackles  of  superstition,  the  galvanism  of  emotion, 
for  7ve  live.  We  may  refuse  to  be  satisfied  with  anything  religious  unless  we 
realize  the  life-giving  touch  of  the  Son  of  God.  No  picture  of  the  sun  can 
illumine  a  landscape ;  no  richly  colored  wax  or  folded  paper  can  make  a 
riower  bed.  We  may  have  our  sunbeams  hot  from  the  sky  and  the  fragrance 
and  beauty  of  life  be  the  flowering  of  the  in  dwelling  spirit  of  Him  Who  is 
the  life.  When  once  this  central  truth  is  grasped  it  will  go  with  us  all  the 
way  and  lead  us  out  of  the  tangles. 

First  of  all,  in  the  problems  of  cojiduct.  Jesus  Christ  the  teacher,  taught 
conduct,  character,  life,  duty, — "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  "  was 
His  criterion  of  judgment  as  to  behavior.  "  He  that  heareth  My  sayings 
and  doeth  them  "  is  the  man  whom  He  approved.  The  final  tests  in  the 
adjudication  of  destiny  are  ethical  tests  as  seen  in  Matt.  25. — "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  did  it — fed  the  hungry,  clothed  the  naked,  visited  the  sick  and  the  like, 
you  may  stand  at  the  right  hand  of  God  in  the  judgment ".  The  problem 
of  the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  kind  of  character  illustrated  in  the 
life  of  Jesus,  and  the  first  problem  evident  at  the  outset  is  the  application  of 
this  ideal  of  life  to  conduct  and  character. 

He  who  accepts  Jesus  as  the  truth  will  follow  His  lead  in  the  Scripture, 
not  studying  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Testament,  not  studying  the  theology 
of  the  New  Testament,  not  studying  Christology.  Nor  will  he  be  a  New 
Testament  critic  studying  the  books.  These  problems  are  behind  and 
beyond.  No  !  he  will  take  the  New  Testament  as  it  lies  before  him  and  the 
one  question  before  him  will  be  what  is  the  character  exemplified  and  taught  ? 
What  is  the  Christian  character  ?  What  sort  of  person  is  built  on  the  New 
Testament  teaching  ?  These  studies  are  preliminary,  introductory.  The 
subjects  are  near  and  obvious ;  they  open  the  way  to  the  remote.  The  first 
thing  in  the  New  Testament  is  the  appeal  to  life,  conduct  and  character. 


2IO  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

The  path  to  what  is  beyond  lies  through  the  investigation  of  the  near. 
Here  is  a  method  of  approach  which  reverses  the  common  method  which 
always  begins  with  the  remote,  the  obscure.  Study  the  familiar  hand-books 
of  Christian  ethics,  e.  g.,  Dorner  or  Martensen.  They  begin  with  the  specu- 
lative. The  opening  chapters  are  purely  theological,  metaphysical,  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  conduct  and  character.  The  whole  discussion  is  of  the 
nature  of  God,  then  descends  into  the  realm  of  conduct  and  lays  down  such 
rules  of  conduct  as  are  deducible  from  theological  tenets ;  but  with  Jesus  as 
teacher  we  take  the  other  method  of  procedure.  First  the  simple,  the  near, 
the  practical,  the  personal,  then  the  greater  visions  of  what  lies  beyond. 
First  ethics,  then  theology  ;  first  life,  then  truth ;  first  the  example  of  Christ, 
then  the  person  of  Christ;  first  the  interpretation  of  Christ,  then  the  know- 
ledge of  Christ.  "He  who  will  do  the  will  of  God  shall  know".  The 
approach  to  the  New  Testament  through  the  path  of  ethics  is  distinguished 
from  the  usual  treatment  and  more  consistent  with  the  New  Testament 
itself.  The  theology  of  the  future  is  not  prerequisite  to  the  understanding 
of  the  character  of  Jesus,  but  the  very  reverse.  The  character  and  life  of 
Jesus  are  fundamental  to  the  theology  of  the  future.  Look  at  the  ethics  of 
Jesus  for  a  moment.  In  announcing  His  morality  Jesus  took  three  departures 
from  other  systems :  Mosaic,  Pharisaic,  Graeco- Roman.  These  were  the 
three  moral  systems  of  His  time,  the  systems  respectively  of  His  ancestral 
religion,  the  then  principal  sect,  and  that  of  the  outside  world.  Every  utter- 
ance of  Jesus  bearing  on  morals  was  spoken  in  contemplation  of  one  or  the 
other  of  these  classes.  In  departing  from  the  Mosaic  system  He  sought  to 
develop  morality  from  its  primitive  rudeness  and  simplicity.  In  departing 
from  the  Pharisaic  system  He  sought  to  recall  it  from  the  ritualistic  diver- 
gence to  the  proper  subjects  of  morality,  and  in  departing  from  the  Graeco- 
Roman  He  sought  to  substitute  the  tender  for  the  heroic  virtue. 

His  object,  therefore,  as  viewed  from  these  three  points  of  departure 
was  respectfully  to  fulfil,  to  correct  and  to  supplant,  or  to  affect  an  exten- 
sion, a  reformation  and  a  revolution.  The  ethical  classifications  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  become  clear  when  we  understand  His  point  of  view. 

Jesus  was  infinitely  patient  toward  some  sins,  but  was  terrifically  severe 
with  the  Pharisees.  His  estimate  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican  was  a 
subversion  of  all  accepted  standards  of  conduct.  Jesus  Christ  wanted  to 
find  one  initial  quality  which  the  sinner  might  hold,  and  the  typical  Pharisee 
lacked,  namely, — docility,  receptivity ;  not  the  quality  of  wrong-doing  in  a 
life,  but  the  quality  of  self-sufficiency  was  the  great  hindrance  to  goodness, 
the  state  of  mind  which  knows  no  lack  and  is  not  open  to  modifications. 
His  commendation  of  another  type — the  child — is  evidence  of  His  estimate 
of  the  worth  of  teachableness. 

Childlikeness  is  this  initial  trait.  It  is  not  afflicted  with  self-sufficiency. 
The  chief  obstacle  to  the  Christian  religion  is  satiety.  This  is  hopeless.  How 
can  we  offer  a  feast  when  a  man  has  fed  ?  Hunger,  thirst,  craving,  openness ; 
these  are  the  qualities  of  mind  on  which  Jesus  lays  emphasis.  It  is  not  the 
sins  of  the  flesh  against  which  He  inveighs,  or  the  sins  of  the  spirit.     It  is 


FREED  OM  THK  O  UGH  THE  TR  UTH.  2 1 1 

the  condition  of  being  surfeited  and  therefore  unteachable.  Given  teach- 
ableness, then  His  faith  is  in  moral  growth.  He  does  not  say  that  this  is  a 
good  man  and  that  man  is  bad,  but  this  man  is  moving  toward  an  end,  there 
is  hope  of  him.  His  movements  are  dynamic,  evolutionary.  Jesus  always 
looked  for  this  openness  toward  growth.  Consider,  for  example.  His  treat- 
ment of  Peter.  Jesus  saw  in  him  something  teachable.  This  explains  His 
continued  faith  in  Judas.  He  hoped  for  him ;  there  was  something  in  him 
to  make  Him  believe  in  growth.  He  had  not  lost  faith  in  him.  Add  to 
openness  of  mind  the  principle  of  growth  and  you  have  the  ground-work  and 
the  standards  of  Jesus'  ethics.  Now  compare  the  text-books  on  Christian 
morals  and  make  the  contrast  with  the  Gospel  teaching  in  their  mode  of 
approach.  Dorner's  system  of  Christian  ethics  so  highly  systematized  is  all 
an  inference  from  theology  instead  of  as  in  the  New  Testament  where  ethics 
is  propedeutic  to  theology.  As  one  of  my  teachers  has  said,  "  This  process 
is  like  drawing  the  fire  down  instead  of  lighting  it  on  the  ground.  The 
draught  is  the  wrong  way,  and  we  cannot  see  because  of  the  smoke  ".  In 
the  Gospel  we  trace  the  path  of  Jesus  in  His  steps ;  we  listen  to  Jesus  and 
hear  Him  talk  about  conduct  and  character.  To  follow  His  simple,  elemental, 
inductive  method  of  study  takes  us  away  from  classification.  We  go  through 
life,  not  as  the  professional  botanist,  to  pluck,  dry,  classify,  put  away  in  a 
drawer,  label,  and  perhaps  exhibit  the  selected  specimens  of  conduct.  We 
go  rather  as  a  nature  lover  who  walks  through  the  fields  and  watches  the 
lilies  as  they  grow.  Jesus  is  not  a  system  maker,  but  an  observer  with  the 
highest  qualities  of  insight.  He  watches  the  people  as  they  act.  His  ethics 
are  based  on  the  principles  of  growth ;  He  deals  not  with  character  as  it  is, 
but  with  character  as  it  may  be.  He  considers  the  issue,  like  a  bulb  planted 
in  winter.  He  discerns  the  possibility  of  beauty  in  the  spring.  This  is  why 
the  nethermost  sins  are  not  hopeless  from  the  point  of  view  of  Jesus.  States 
of  mind  interest  Him.  If  the  roots  are  dead  there  is  no  hope.  So  the 
Pharisee  and  the  Publican  in  ordinary  estimates  were  clearly  distinguishable. 
So  are  the  rose  and  the  daisy.  From  all  appearances  and  by  ordinary 
standards  of  value  the  rose  is  to  be  preferred,  but  the  great  question  is  what 
will  happen  next  spring .''  Jesus  looking  on  the  Publican  saw  in  him  promise 
and  possibility  and  knew  that  he  would  come  to  something,  but  the  Pharisee 
was  dead  at  the  root.  What  hope  is  there  in  the  character  1  This  is  the 
question.  Is  there  to  come  something  from  the  unpromising  stem  which 
will  justify  keeping  it .-'  If  not,  cut  it  off.  "  To  be  carnally  minded  is  death, 
to  be  spiritually  minded  is  life  ".  Here  is  the  promise  of  growth.  So  with 
the  lead  of  Jesus  we  are  able  to  get  at  the  real  in  character  and  find  emanci- 
pation from  the  bondage  of  ordinary  classifications  of  conduct  in  the  discovery 
of  that  which  is  vital. 

Secondly.  In  the  problems  of  doctrine.  The  history  of  religion  plainly 
reveals  a  tendency  toward  elaboration.  In  the  process  there  is  an  inevitable 
loss  of  some  of  the  elements  of  original  character.  A  change  of  basepis  not 
a  change  for  the  better.  Religions  deteriorate  ;  they  lose  their  finer  ingre- 
dients.    The  average  Mahometan  today  is  not  nearly  so  good  a  man  as 


212  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Mahomet  was.  Judaism  in  the  time  of  Christ  was  very  different  from  the 
Judaism  of  Moses.  It  is  equally  true  of  Christianity.  The  truth  which 
Christ  declared  is  obscured  in  tradition ;  the  life  which  He  emphasized  is 
lost  in  dogmatic  systems.  The  most  hopeful  religious  movement  today  is 
the  determined  effort  to  get  back  to  Christ,  to  unload  the  superfluous 
baggage  of  theological  dogma,  to  set  back  the  roots  of  all  Christian  growth 
into  the  original  soil  of  the  real  life  of  God.  It  is  a  reaction  from  the  exter- 
nal to  the  internal,  from  the  accidental  to  the  essential.  Back  and  up  the 
stream  of  religious  life  the  earnest  souls  of  this  latest  of  the  centuries  are 
pressing  their  way  in  order  that  they  may  trace  the  current  to  the  fountain 
head  and  discover  a  clear  stream.  The  longest  dogmatic  systems  are  the 
atest.  The  Romish  Church  has  continued  the  elaboration  of  its  articles  of 
faith  through  fourteen  centuries,  adding  the  last  in  1870.  We  have  to  go 
back  for  brevity.  The  thirty-nine  articles  in  the  Westminster  Confession 
are  more  brief  than  the  Catholic  creed.  The  creed  of  Athanasius  is  shorter 
still,  the  Nicene  creed  less  elaborate.  The  nearer  the  source  the  simpler 
the  statements.  The  Apostolic  creed  is  the  simplest  of  all,  but  the  pure 
river  of  the  water  of  life  is  today  being  traced  back  to  the  very  altars  of  God 
where  the  stream  issues  forth  clear  as  crystal  uncontaminated  by  the  findings 
of  Augsberg,  Trent,  Chalcedon  or  Nicea,  back  to  the  New  Testament  itself 
in  which  are  the  pure  springs — there  to  find  the  personal  Christ. 

"  Hushed  be  the  noise  and  the  strife  of  the  schools, 
Volume  and  pamphlet,  sermon  and  speech, 
The  lips  of  the  wise  and  the  prattle  of  fools, 
Let  the  Son  of  Man  teach  ! 
"  Who  has  the  key  of  the  future  but  He  t 
Who  can  unravel  the  knots  of  the  skein  ? 
We  have  groaned  and  have  travailed  and  sought  to  be  free, 
We  have  travailed  in  vain. 
"  Bewildered,  dejected,  and  prone  to  despair, 
To  Him  as  at  first  do  we  turn  and  beseech, 
Our  ears  are  all  open  1     Give  heed  to  our  prayer ! 
O  Son  of  Man  teach  1" 

The  essentials  of  religion  as  defined  by  Paul  who  received  his  illumma- 
tion  from  the  personal  Christ  are  but  two, — a  person  and  a  fact,  Jesus  and 
the  resurrection.  Peter's  succinct  statement,  the  summary  of  which  he  had 
learned  after  seven  months  with  Jesus  in  northern  Galilee  was  :  "  Thou  art 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God  ".  And  the  final  word  of  John  reveals 
the  heart  of  the  matter—"  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life  ".  In  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  New  Testament  there  is  the  emphasis  of  life.  The  councils 
of  the  centuries  have  been  elaborating  definitions,  determining  theories, 
settling  opinions,  and  have  wrapped  themselves  round  in  the  shackles  of 
paralyzing  discussion. 

Take  up  any  system  where  you  will.  They  have  nothing  to  do  with 
character  or  conduct.  They  are  metaphysical,  not  ethical.  They  discuss 
the  relation  of  the  three  persons  in  the  trinity ;  the  relation  of  the  divine  and 
human  natures  in  the  person  of  Jesus  ;  the  relation  of  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus 


FREEDOM  THROUGH  2HE  TRUTH.  213 

to  the  divine  law ;  the  relation  of  the  will  of  man  to  the  will  of  God  ;  the 
mysterious  nature  of  the  sacraments  and  many  such  like  things  they  discuss. 
Doubtless  these  ought  they  to  have  done  but  not  to  have  left  the  other 
undone.  One  breathes  another  atmosphere  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
lie  speaks  of  a  Father's  love  and  care;  His  beneficent  providence;  the 
freedom  from  care  which  comes  from  trust  in  that  love ;  the  obligation  of 
children  to  be  like  their  Father ;  the  importance  of  unselfish  service  ;  the 
excellence  of  the  tender  virtues;  the  estimate  of  the  inner  quality  of  life  as 
compared  with  the  merely  external  and  formal.  This  is  not  theory  nor 
theology.  It  is  life.  As  Henry  Van  Dyke  has  said:  "Theology  is  not 
religion  for  the  same  reason  that  biology  is  not  life  ".  Wherever  there  is 
this  conception  of  what  is  vital  in  religion  in  the  actual  contact  with  the 
living  Christ  there  is  life  real,  throbbing,  essential.  This  emphasis  of  the 
essentials  has  found  expression  lately  in  the  chapel  at  Brighton  where  the 
eloquent  Robertson  preached.  There  has  been  placed  a  memorial  in  the 
form  of  HofTman's  "  Christ  Among  the  Doctors  of  the  Law",  and  as  express- 
ing the  attitude  of  mind  of  their  beloved  preacher,  the  givers  of  the  tablet 
have  inscribed  the  legend — "  They  were  thinking  about  theolog}',  he  was 
thinking  about  God  ". 

Thirdly.  In  the  problems  of^vorship.  The  tendency  toward  elaboration 
is  as  apparent  in  forms  of  worship  and  methods  of  organization  until  some- 
times it  is  diflficult  to  discover  the  earnest,  simple  activities  of  the  church  of 
the  apostles  amid  the  elaborate  ritual  and  complex  ceremony  of  today.  The 
unselfish  ministrations  of  the  apostolic  church  has  been  displaced  by  the 
selfish  administration  of  the  church  of  the  later  centuries.  We  have  to  go 
back  for  simplicity.  The  methods  that  have  gradually  come  into  use  through 
the  centuries  have  obscured  the  simple  ways  of  the  apostles.  The  emphasis 
of  the  church  as  an  organization  has  given  rise  to  an  elaboration  of  ritual, 
an  enrichment  of  ceremony  which  makes  the  church  appear  as  an  end  in 
itself.  Ecclesiastical  form  is  thought  to  express  the  whole  content  of  religion 
and  in  the  thought  of  the  church  as  an  organization  is  lost  the  more  Christly 
thought  of  the  church  as  an  organism.  Simplicity  is  fundamental  to  all 
religious  life. 

In  recent  explorations  in  Egypt  it  is  recorded  that  Cailliaud  found  some 
excavations  in  a  mountain  which  on  entering  proved  to  be  emerald  mines 
apparently  unvisited  since  the  times  of  the  Ptolemies.  There  at  the  entrance 
lay  the  lamps  and  the  tools  with  which  the  ancient  miners  had  worked  appeal- 
ing with  silent  eloquence  for  other  hands  to  take  them  up  and  dig  for  new 
treasures  which  lay  in  costly  profusion  all  around,  and  with  the  old  instru- 
ments these  new  workmen  in  the  latest  of  the  centuries  dug  out  the  emerald 
gems. 

The  apostolic  church,  fresh  from  the  hands  of  the  Holy  Ghost  had  four 
great  characteristics,— love  of  truth,  love  of  one  another,  frequent  remem- 
brance of  Christ,  and  immediate  connection  with  Him  in  prayer.  They 
continued  steadfastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and  fellowship,  in  the  break- 
ing of  bread  and   in  prayers.     There  are  some  things  in  the  church  more 


214  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

important  than  exactness  of  ordinances,  or  ornateness  of  worship,  and  one 
of  them  is  the  divine  breath, 

A  work  among  the  mariners  is  carried  on  in  New  York  harbor  by  the 
Episcopal  City  Mission.  The  missionary  was  asked  by  an  ecclesiastical 
purist  whether  his  church  were  high  or  low.  He  replied,  "It  depends  upon 
the  tide ".  There  were  some  simple,  great  matters  which  inspired  the 
consecrated  disciples  in  the  first  century  and  they  engaged  in  a  manifold 
ministry,  a  ministry  of  life  as  penetrating  as  human  need,  as  comprehensive 
as  divine  love. 

You  will  remember  John  Stuart  Blackie's  confession  of  faith.  It  has 
the  true  ring. 

"  Creeds  and  confessions  ?    High  church  or  low  ? 
I  cannot  say;  but  you  would  vastly  please  us 
If  with  some  pointed  Scripture  you  could  show 
To  which  of  these  belonged  the  Saviour  Jesus. 
I  think  to  all  or  none.     Not  curious  creeds, 
Or  ordered  forms  of  churchly  rule  He  taught, 
But  soul  of  love  that  blossomed  into  deeds 
With  human  good  and  human  blessing  fraught. 
On  me  nor  priest,  nor  presbyter,  nor  pope. 
Bishop  nor  dean,  may  stamp  a  party  name. 
But  Jesus  with  His  largely  human  scope 
The  service  of  my  human  life  may  claim. 
Let  prideful  priests  do  batile  about  creeds 
The  church  is  mine  that  does  most  Christ-like  deeds". 

That  church  has  the  most  divinity  in  it  which  does  the  most  for  human- 
ity. Humanity  wants  life,  not  theories  about  life.  The  church  that  will  save 
a  world  must  be  divinely  alive.  It  will  not  be  a  rich  church  nor  a  poor 
church,  liturgical  or  non-liturgical.  Life  consists  not  in  ornateness  nor 
plainness,  "Neither  circumcision  availeth  anything,  nor  uncircumcision,  but 
a  new  creature  ".  Such  a  church  will  subordinate  tradition  to  truth,  will 
insist  that  even  Augustine  and  Calvin  shall  yield  the  throne  to  Jesus,  will 
insist  that  councils,  creeds,  priests  and  fathers  combined  shall  not  in  the 
least  diminish  the  immediacy  of  the  pressure  of  the  very  words  of  Christ  or 
divert  the  permanent  and  paramount  authoritativeness  of  His  word.  Such 
a  church  will  keep  the  conscience  of  Christendom  face  to  face  and  eye  to 
eye  with  our  Lord,  will  provide  an  exhilarating  atmosphere  for  Christian 
activity  and  impart  nerve  to  Christian  enterprise.  Such  a  church  will 
emancipate  the  thought  of  God's  people  from  entanglements  and  complica- 
tions by  its  constant  fealty  to  the  personal  and  vital  elements  of  Christian 
truth.  To  the  member  of  such  a  church  Christ  will  be  the  one  thing  in  the 
Christian  life.  He  will  know  Christ  as  a  personal  force.  Christ  will  ener- 
gize him,  inspire  him,  be  the  motive  of  all  he  does.  He  will  yield  to  Christ 
exact,  absolute  and  prompt  obedience.  He  will  be  in  vital  touch  with  Christ 
by  virtue  of  his  own  personal  faith.  To  him  Christ  is  the  vine  of  which  he 
is  a  branch  and  all  his  Christian  experiences  are  a  matter  of  being  wrought 
into  Christ,  for  Christ  and  Christ's  spirit  are  the  determinative  energies  of 
his  life.     This  is  the  church  for  which  the  world  is  waiting.     This  is  the 


FREED  OM  THR  O  UGH  THE  TR  UTH  2 1 5 

simple  vital  truth  which  humanity  craves.  The  ordinary  mind  with  difficulty 
understands  the  elaborate  systems  of  doctrine  which  the  centuries  have 
perfected,  nor  can  it  appreciate  the  elaborate  cults  of  worship  which  are 
maintained  in  the  name  of  religion ;  but  the  people  know  the  life  of  Jesus 
when  they  see  it,  and  in  Him  Christianity  consists  not  of  many  things  com- 
bined, but  one  thing. 

Once  in  immediate  contact  with  Jesus  Christ,  the  seeker  for  truth  is  not 
confused  with  complicated  questions  of  convictions  or  conduct.  These  are 
incident,  not  essence.  Life  is  the  essential  thing.  Where  there  is  life  there 
will  be  fruit.  Life  will  surely  manifest  itself.  The  Christianity  of  Christ  is 
not  a  system  of  doctrine,  nor  a  form  of  worship,  nor  a  code  of  morals,  but 
divine  life  in  the  human  soul. 

To  be  sure,  the  Christ -filled  man  will  think  deeply  and  accurately ;  he 
will  also  behave  well,  but  neither  opinion  nor  behavior,  neither  creed  nor 
covenant  constitute  the  essence  of  Christian  experience.  Life  is  the  thing. 
Let  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  be  accepted  in  its  simplicity  and  its  entirety 
and  the  world's  emancipation  is  achieved.  He  did  not  formulate  a  definite 
series  of  the  necessary  articles  of  faith,  nor  did  He  summarize  the  things 
which  it  is  essential  to  believe.  Such  a  statement  is  not  essential  to  the 
religion  of  Jesus.  He  did  not  insist  upon  certain  forms  of  worship.  "  God 
is  a  spirit:  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in 
truth " ;  not  in  Gerizim,  nor  in  Jerusalem  is  the  place  to  worship,  but 
wherever  and  whenever  the  reverent  soul  lifts  itself  to  God. 

He  did  not  fix  a  heirarchy  of  virtues  and  classify  actions  by  any  set  and 
fixed  ethical  standards.  He  seemed  quite  willing  that  the  opinions  of  His 
disciples  should  be  flexible  so  long  as  their  faith  was  firm  and  their  life 
eternal.  He  seemed  to  have  anticipated  the  subtle  temptation  which  has 
overtaken  the  Christian  disciple  in  all  ages  to  emphasize  the  intellectual  ele- 
ment in  the  religious  life  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  external  on  the  other,  and 
so  He  taught,  explained,  and  reiterated  that  life  was  paramount  and  prece- 
dent. He  led  His  disciples  to  larger  views  of  intellectual  freedom  and 
responsibility.  He  bade  them  see  that  in  the  nature  of  the  case  opinion  is 
to  life  what  letter  is  to  spirit,  what  scaffold  is  to  structure.  The  words 
which  He  spake  unto  them,  they  were  spirit,  they  were  life.  In  the  classical 
passage  (John  4)  he  teaches  clearly  that  worship  depends  upon  a  true  con- 
ception of  God,  that  it  must  be  spiritual  as  opposed  to  sensuous,  that  it  must 
be  in  truth,  dealing  with  reality,  giving  adequate  and  veracious  expression 
to  genuine  desire  and  veritable  emotions. 

In  the  public  worship  which  will  accord  with  these  simple  principles 
the  Praise  will  not  be  rendered  perfunctorily  by  certain  lay  figures  arrayed 
in  the  latest  achievements  of  the  dressmaker's  art,  conspicuously  exposed 
to  the  gaze  of  the  curious,  nor  will  it  be  the  pyrotechnical  vocalizations  of 
certain  musical  prodigies  whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  echo.  It  will 
rather  be  the  spontaneous  expression  of  real  emotion,  gratitude,  joy,  rever- 
ence— praise  in  which  every  worshipper  will  participate  and  pour  out  his 
soul  in  exultant  song. 


2i6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

The  Prayer  will  not  be  an  elocutionary  discourse  which  brings  the  wor- 
shipper into  communion  with  him  who  prays ;  it  will  rather  be  the  voice  of 
the  heart,  as  natural  an  outbreathing  as  when  the  flowers  swing  their 
censers  in  the  temple  of  the  morning. 

The  Preaching  will  present  God,  not  the  preacher ;  will  awaken  the 
conscience,  not  tickle  the  itching  ear  ;  will  ennoble  and  enrich  the  life  of  the 
hearer  till  he  will  feel  that  his  minister  is  the  minister  of  Christ  by  whose 
hand  he  has  the  gift  of  life  and  has  that  life  more  abundantly. 

Fourthly.  In  the  problems  of  social  service.  Who  shall  give  humanity 
the  life  and  liberty  it  craves  ?  This  opportunity  belongs  to  the  church  of 
the  living  God.  What  is  the  New  Testament  idea  of  the  church  ?  It  is 
the  body  of  Christ,  the  reincarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  incarnation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  As  such  she  must  express  in  her  conduct,  her  doctrine, 
her  worship,  her  service  the  spirit  which  animates  her.  Christ  must  be  the 
source  of  her  life,  Christ  the  body  of  truth  which  she  teaches,  Christ  the 
source  of  her  power.  There  is  only  one  simple  fact  which  constitutes  the 
organism  called  church,  namely,  her  living  relation  to  Christ.  There  is 
no  church  except  as  the  members  of  the  organism  are  livingly  knit  into 
Him.     The  church  is  organism,  not  mechanism. 

In  the  deepest  sense,  therefore,  the  church  may  embody  the  truth  which 
will  give  humanity  the  liberty  and  life  it  craves.  She  may  demonstrate  that 
God  localizes  Himself  in  her.  She  may  be  the  organ  of  the  life  of  God. 
For  this  church  the  world  waits.  Humanity  wants  life,  the  touch  of  omnip- 
otence, contact  with  God.  The  church  of  the  living  Christ  today  may  be 
the  embodiment  of  divine  love,  wisdom  and  powder.  She  may  work  in  the 
world  as  distinct  amid  the  organizations  of  the  time  as  the  life  of  Abraham 
was  amid  the  materialistic  civilization  of  the  Mesopotamian  Valley,  as  dis- 
tinct as  the  life  of  Enoch,  who  walked  with  God,  who  worked  and  wor- 
shipped in  a  spiritual  temple  invisible  yet  real  and  eternal.  While  other 
men  build  theologies,  settle  definitions,  elaborate  theories  and  try  by  multi- 
plied and  complex  agencies  to  affect  the  life  of  men,  the  church  may  triumph 
as  Elijah  on  Carmel,  or  Peter  at  Pentecost,  who  linked  their  activities  to 
the  dynamics  of  the  skies  and  were  personally  moved  by  the  omnipotent 
energies  of  God. 

Such  a  church  may  conquer  mountainous  difficulties,  expel  insistant 
and  rebellious  evil,  solve  vexed  and  intricate  problems,  and  bring  in  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth.  Herself  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  the  letter, 
and  tradition,  and  form,  having  found  the  emancipation  of  spirit  and  life, 
she  can  deliver  humanity  from  the  bondage  of  sin  and  death.  The  social 
evangel  of  Jesus  was  spirit  and  life.  He  began  with  life  at  its  sources.  His 
salvation  of  society,  like  salvation  of  the  soul,  was  to  save  the  body  through 
the  soul.  His  methods  in  redemption  were,  therefore,  vital,  not  mechanical. 
He  would  transform  the  soul  of  mankind  and  so  change  the  civilization  in 
which  they  live.  Only  the  life  of  Christ  can  raise  civilization  from  the 
dead.  The  efficiency  of  Christ's  method  has  been  vindicated  through  2000 
years  of  history.     Yet  it  is  astonishing  how  difficult  it  is  to  get  it  practically 


FREEDOM  THROUGH  THE  TRUTH.  217 

accepted  by  the  social  workers  of  to-day.  The  external  method  is  so  plausi- 
ble, so  bewitching,  so  easy.  There  never  was  a  time  when  some  reformer 
was  not  ready  to  suggest  some  Medea's  bath,  some  Merlin's  charm,  or,  with 
Carlisle,  some  Morison's  pill  which  can  cure  all  the  ills  of  the  race.  The 
shores  of  the  social  sea  are  strewn  with  the  wrecks  of  these  futile  and 
mechanical  attempts  at  changing  the  condition  of  men.  It  is  less  expensive 
just  to  put  a  face  on  things.  Some  people  are  yet  misled  by  the  error  that 
the  shell  can  form  the  organism,  or  the  feathers  grow  the  bird.  There  are 
yet  advocates  of  the  theory  that  environment  makes  the  man ;  there  are 
yet  reveries  of  sentiment  and  romance  about  the  New  Jerusalem  builded 
with  jewels  and  paved  with  gold,  and  Jesus  yet  weeps  over  the  city  and 
society  because  the  people  will  not  let  Him  build  their  Jerusalem  for  them. 
These  methods  and  agencies  leave  the  essential  difficulty  of  the  problem 
untouched. 

Only  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  can  make  men  free.  "  The  law  of  the 
spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death ".  We  must  bring  to  bear  upon  dilapidated  and  disabled  souls 
the  quickening  breath  of  the  divine  life  and  so  awaken  them  to  the  appreci- 
ation of  that  better  life  which  they  may  have  abundantly. 

To  be  sure,  men  will  say  they  are  not  dead  as  the  Pharisees  declared 
they  had  "  never  been  in  bondage  to  any  man  ",  yet  there  was  Egypt  and 
Babylon  in  their  history,  and  the  Roman  eagles  were  visible  in  the  temple, 
flaunting  their  wings  in  the  castle.  Men  are  as  ingenious  as  they  in  ignor- 
ing the  disagreeable  facts  which  blind  so  many  to  their  fetters.  Sin's  fet- 
ters are  riveted  when  the  bondsman  lifts  his  manacled  hand  and  protests  his 
freedom,  but  slavery  is  not  an  affair  of  political  or  social  arrangement.  It 
is  a  condition  of  the  spirit.  Death  is  not  physical  collapse,  but  separation 
from  God.  Real  bondage  is  that  which  enslaves  the  will  and  prevents 
doing  right.  "  Whoso  committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin  ".  The  most  real 
servitude  and  the  only  terrible  death  is  that  perverted  condition  of  soul  in 
which  the  better  nature  is  incapable  of  casting  off  the  chains  woven  by  its 
own  acts,  and  in  trying  to  do  so  throws  aside  the  restraints  of  virtue  only  to 
be  bound  the  more  tightly  by  the  heavier  fetters  of  vice.  This  deeper 
human  need  is  revealed  as  by  a  lightning  flash  in  the  words  of  John  (i  John 
5:12)  and  the  words  of  Jesus  illumine  the  path  into  the  larger  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God. 

"  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life  " — "  If  the  Son  make  you  free  you 
shall  be  free  indeed  ". 


*  THE  HOME  AT  BETHANY  AND  THE  FRIENDSHIPS  OF  JESUS. 

BY    REV,    DONALD    SAGE    IVIACKAY,    D.    D., 

Minister  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Collegiate  Church,  New  York. 

Friendship,  as  an  influence  in  Christ's  Hfe,  was  neither  trivial  nor  inci- 
dental. If  it  be  true  that  a  man  is  known  by  his  friends,  it  may  be  said 
with  perfect  reverence  that  the  character  of  Jesus,  in  its  human  relations, 
can  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of  His  friendships.  Apart,  therefore,  from 
their  historical  interest,  the  friendships  of  Christ  have  a  definite  psychologi- 
cal value.  In  ways  most  suggestive  and  illuminating  they  interpret  cer- 
tain fundamental  qualities  in  His  nature,  without  which,  indeed.  His 
humanity  would  be  incomplete.  On  the  one  hand,  for  example,  they  reflect 
Christ's  capacity  for  creating  friendships  a  certain  sympathetic  power  of 
drawing  men  and  women  to  Himself  on  the  basis  of  loving  intimacy.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  reveal  the  need  of  frieridship  itself  as  a  feature  of  His 
nature,  a  craving  of  His  heart  which  demanded  the  sympathy  and  love  of 
kindred  souls  for  its  expression. 

But  more  than  that,  in  addition  to  this  historical  and  psychological 
interest,  the  friendships  of  Jesus  must  be  studied  in  the  light  of  their  spir- 
itual and  experimental  value.  Nothing  would  be  more  inadequate  than  to 
think  of  these  friendships  as  merely  reminiscences  of  His  human  life  on 
earth.  They  are,  in  fact,  the  pledge  of  His  continuous  presence  in  the 
experience  of  His  people.  They  are  the  historical  type  of  that  mystical 
communion  which  the  believer  enjoys  as  the  supreme  achievement  of  faith. 
The  friendship  of  Jesus,  mediated  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  the  dynamic 
in  the  Christian  consciousness.  There  is  no  simpler,  yet  more  profound 
definition  of  Christianity  as  a  spiritual  influence  in  the  soul  than  in  these 
three  words,  "  Friendship  with  Jesus  ".  In  these  words  lies  the  secret  of  the 
divine  life  in  man,  transfiguring  character  and  inspiring  conduct.  "  Hence- 
forth I  call  you  not  servants  but  friends." 

The  Christian  life,  it  may  be  said,  passes  through  three  distinct  stages 
— that  of  the  bond-servant,  where  the  radical  motive  is  compulsion  through 
fear ;  that  of  the  hireling,  where  the  controlling  elements  are  duty  and 
reward,  and  finally  that  of  the  friend,  where  spiritual  experience  has  resolved 
itself  into  personal  fusion  with  Christ,  in  which  the  dominant  influence  is 
love  expressing  itself  in  passionate  devotion. 

That  is  the  flower  of  Christ's  friendship.  To  that  high  destiny  He 
sought  to  lift  every  man  who  felt  the  touch  of  His  spirit.  Very  beautifully 
is  that  spiritual  aspect  of  His  friendship  brought  out  in  that  verse  in  St. 
Mark's  Gospel  which  records  the  calling  of  the  twelve.     In  Mark  3  :  14  we 


*  Delivered  at  the  Seventh  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Congregational  Church,  April  13,  1904. 

218 


THE  FRIENDSHIPS  OF  JESUS.  219 

read,  "And  He  appointed  twelve  that  they  might  be  with  Him  ".  A  world 
of  spiritual  suggestion  lies  in  that  preposition  "  with  ".  Primarily  he  chose 
these  twelve  men,  not  to  cast  out  devils  or  preach  the  gospel  or  baptize. 
Back  of  all  these  things  was  this  fundamental  condition  :  He  chose  them 
"that  they  might  be  with  Him",  Fellowship  with  Christ  must  antedate 
service  for  Christ.  Our  friendship  with  the  Master  is  the  secret  of  our 
activity  for  the  Master.  To  know  this  atmosphere  of  personal  communion 
with  Him  is  the  highest  culture  of  which  the  soul  is  capable.  Friendship, 
the  reservoir  of  service ;  lacking  that,  service  becomes  drudgery  and  duty 
sordid. 

It  is  a  frequent  criticism  of  Christian  ethics  that  the  New  Testament  is 
singularly  reticent  on  the  subject  of  friendship.  While  it  is  specific  enough 
as  to  duties  of  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  masters  and  ser- 
vants, on  the  claims  and  duties  of  friendship,  the  New  Testament,  it  is 
often  asserted,  has  no  word  to  say.  While  Pagan  thought  found  its  noblest 
utterances  in  its  glowing  apostrophes  to  friendship,  Christian  literature  on 
the  other  hand,  in  and  out  of  the  canon,  has  nothing  that  can  compare  with 
the  great  classics  on  this  theme.  Jeremy  Taylor,  indeed,  amongst  the  Puri- 
tans, has  a  charming  essay  on  the  "  Pleasures  and  Offices  of  Friendship  ", — 
next  to  his  book  on  "  Holy  Living  and  Dying  ",  his  best  piece  of  writing, — 
but  even  Jeremy  Taylor,  writing  from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  draws  his 
most  effective  illustrations  from  the  classic  authors  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

But  the  assertion  that  the  New  Testament  has  nothing  to  say  on  the 
pleasures  and  offices  of  friendship  is  only  partially  true.  What  it  omits  to 
say  by  precept  or  aphorism,  the  New  Testament  does  convincingly  by  sug- 
gestion and  example.  If  the  word  friendship  occurs  only  once  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  then  only  as  a  term  of  condemnation,  the  atmosphere  of 
friendship  in  its  highest  and  purest  sense  pervades  the  book  like  the  aroma 
of  Mary's  ointment.  The  new  commandment  is  the  charter  of  Christian 
friendship.  That  we  love  one  another  as  He  loved  us  is  to  be  the  measure 
of  our  spiritual  kinsh'ip  with  all  men,  and  from  the  passion  of  that  divine 
love.  Christian  friendship  draws  its  inspiration. 

The  home  at  Bethany  was  the  geographical  center  of  the  friendships  of 
Jesus.  To  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  owe  an  imperishable  debt  of  gratitude  for 
that  exquisite  chapter  in  the  Saviour's  life.  Bethany,  lying  peacefully 
amidst  the  uplands  of  Judea  amongst  the  vine-clad  hills,  and  shadowed  by 
its  spreading  date  palms,  was  the  Elim  in  Christ's  life,  the  quiet  resting 
place  towards  which  in  His  weariest  days  He  turned  His  feet,  not  doubting 
the  welcome  of  love  which  awaited  Him  there.  Bethany  brought  the  touch 
of  home  to  a  homeless  man.  Over  that  village  home  there  rests  for  the 
Christian  an  almost  idyllic  light,  peaceful,  restful,  like  that  of  the  early 
morning  before  the  birds  are  awake.  With  its  tender  memories  it  enshrined 
the  holy  human  sympathy  of  Jesus.  His  place  in  every  home  is  made 
secure  by  His  presence  in  that  simple  household,  a  presence  that  con- 
secrates the  family  and  makes  the  humblest  home  a  sanctuary.  His  love 
for  man  is  made  intense  and  personal  by  His  love  for  Martha  and  Mary 


220  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

and  Lazarus — Mary,  "  whose  eyes  were  homes  of  silent  prayer  "  ;  Martha, 
whose  heart  was  burdened  down  with  care,  and  Lazarus,  whose  vision 
pierced  the  night  of  death. 

As  one  studies  Christ's  relations  in  that  Bethany  home,  one  becomes 
conscious  of  a  fourfold  manfestation  of  His  friendship  with  those  whose 
intimacy  with  Him  had  ripened  into  mutual  confidence  and  love. 

First,  we  see  Christ  there  as  the  genial  friend,  when,  with  a  touch  of 
half  playful  humor  He  rebuked,  if  one  may  use  a  word  so  strong,  the 
anxious  worriment  of  Martha,  busy  with  her  household  cares.  To  Luke  we 
owe  that  charming  glimpse  of  the  contrasted  temperament  of  the  two  sisters, 
amplified  by  John  under  different  circumstances. 

Second,  we  see  Him  as  the  sympathetic  friend,  when  in  the  hour  of 
their  great  affliction  He  comes  to  them  and  mingled  His  tears  with  theirs  at 
the  grave  of  Lazarus. 

Third,  we  behold  Him  as  the  divine  friend,  when  with  voice  of  divine 
authority  He  declared  Himself  the  Resurection  and  the  Life  and  com- 
manded Lazarus  to  come  forth. 

Fourthly,  we  witness  in  Jesus  the  grateful  friend,  when  with  imperish- 
able words  of  gratitude  He  acknowledged  Mary's  act  of  devotion  in  breaking 
over  Him  the  precious  spikenard  and  vindicated  her  love  for  all  time  in  the 
face  of  the  vulgar  criticisms  of  Judas  and  his  associates. 

These  then  were  at  least  four  distinctive  notes  in  the  friendship  of 
Jesus  as  it  unfolded  in  the  home  at  Bethany ;  geniality,  sympathy,  gratitude 
and  divine  helpfulness  from  the  shadow  of  death.  Combine  these  qualities 
and  they  reveal  the  intense  and  beautiful  humanness  of  Christ's  relations 
with  those  He  loved.  His  was  a  friendship  that  invited  confidence  and 
disarmed  fear.  Take,  for  example,  Martha's  approach  to  Him  (recorded 
by  St.  Luke),  when  in  a  moment  of  petulance  she  appealed  to  Him  to  send 
Mary  back  to  her  household  duties  instead  of  monopolizing  the  Master's 
attention.  The  strong  aorist  verb,  meaning  literally  "  coming  up  suddenly  " 
to  Him,  betrays  not  merely  a  touch  of  temper  on  Martha's  part,  but  a  cer- 
tain familiarity  of  approach  which  is  suggestive  of  the  intimacy  which 
existed  between  Christ  and  these  two  sisters.  And  it  is  in  the  light  of  that 
unconstrained  confidence  that  we  are  able  to  appreciate  the  geniality  of 
Christ's  reply.  It  is  hardly  fair  to  call  it  a  rebuke.  It  is  rather  the  half 
bantering  response  of  one  who,  recognizing  the  anxious  hospitality  of  a  gen- 
erous hostess,  seeks  to  relieve  her  anxiety,  while  at  the  same  time  defending 
the  more  spiritually-minded  Mary  who  sat  at  His  feet. 

But  most  beautifully  this  mark  of  utter  confidence  in  His  sympathy  was 
shown  by  these  sisters  in  the  message  they  sent  to  Jesus  when  Lazarus  fell 
ill.  "  Him  whom  Thou  lovest  is  sick  ".  That  is  all.  The  message  con- 
tained no  request.  It  was  enough,  these  grief-stricken  sisters  felt,  to  tell 
the  Master  that  His  friend  was  sick.  Friendship  has  no  higher  mark  than 
that.  The  silence,  the  reserves  of  a  true  friendship  are  more  eloquent  than 
its  speech.  The  language  of  the  heart  in  the  hour  of  its  necessity  fills  up 
the  gaps  of  the  broken  speech,  and  what  the  lips  cannot  articulate,  love 
interprets  and  love  fulfils. 


THE  FRJENDSHIFS  OF  JESUS.  221 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  the  friendship  of  Jesus  towards  the 
household  at  Bethany  found  its  highest  expression  in  the  hour  of  a  great 
sorrow  and  through  a  great  self-sacrifice.  The  eleventh  chapter  of  John  is 
a  life-commentary  on  the  exceeding  preciousness  of  Christ's  presence  in  the 
last  and  saddest  moments  of  experience.  To  that  grief-shadowed  home  He 
came,  even  though  He  knew  His  coming  meant  the  hastening  of  His  own 
death,  as  it  proved,  and  forgetful  of  self,  forgetful  for  the  moment  even  of 
His  own  power  over  death,  He  bowed  His  head  in  tears  so  deep,  so  intense 
that  those  standing  near  could  not  but  exclaim,  "  Behold  how  He  loved  him  ". 
Never,  save  on  the  cross,  were  the  human  and  the  divine  in  Christ  so  sharply 
contrasted,  and  yet  too,  never  so  matchlessly  blended  as  when,  one  moment 
weeping  in  sympathy  by  the  grave,  the  next  moment  He  said:  "Lazarus, 
come  forth  ".  Than  that  act  of  bringing  back  life  from  the  tomb,  friendship 
could  only  go  one  step  further,  the  laying  down  of  His  own  life  for  His 
friends.     And  that  coronation  of  friendship  Jesus  reached  on  the  cross. 

Turning  now  for  a  few  moments  to  Christ's  friendships  with  His  disci- 
ples, one  is  impressed  at  once  by  their  variety.  The  friendships  of  Jesus 
were  not  temperamental.  They  were  not  limited  by  the  presence  or 
absence  of  certain  qualities  in  those  He  invited  to  His  intimacy.  How 
various  and  contrasted  for  example,  were  the  types  of  character  represented 
in  these  twelve  men, — the  choleric  Peter,  the  melancholic  John,  the  phleg- 
matic Andrew,  the  cautious  Thomas,  the  secretive  Judas;  in  each  and  all  of 
these  men  there  was  some  distinct  quality  that  called  out  the  Master's  love. 
It  is  indeed  a  significant  fact,  that  while  John  was  the  beloved  disciple  who 
most  deeply  had  caught  the  secret  of  Christ's  love,  Judas  was  the  only  one 
of  the  twelve  whom  Christ  ever  addressed  as  "  Friend  ".  In  that  moment 
of  betrayal  in  the  garden,  as  though  in  that  last  moment  He  sought  to  stay 
the  traitor's  kiss,  the  last  pleading  of  the  Master's  love  and  the  final  appeal 
to  the  holy  memories  of  the  past  could  find  no  deeper  expression  than  this, 
"  Friend,  wherefore  art  thou  come  ? "  It  was,  as  has  been  said,  the  last 
pleading  of  love,  the  appeal  of  a  friendship  that  to  the  ^very  end  sought  to 
restrain  the  treacherous  hands  that  destroyed  it. 

What  then  was  the  basis  of  this  friendship  of  Christ  ?  What  was  the 
supreme  condition  of  entrance  into  this  holy  fellowship  ?  The  answer  to 
that  question  is  found  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  John.  If  the  eleventh 
chapter,  with  its  exquisite  picture  of  the  Bethany  home  is  the  historical 
record  of  His  friendship,  the  fifteenth  chapter  with  its  beautiful  parable  of 
the  vine  and  the  branches  is  the  spiritual  record  of  His  friendship.  Picture 
for  a  moment  the  scene.  The  fourteenth  chapter  ends  with  the  words 
spoken  in  the  upper  room,  "Arise,  let  us  go  hence  ".  Immediately  after  the 
fifteenth  chapter  begins  with  the  memorable  words,  "  I  am  the  true  vine". 
What  is  the  point  of  connection  ?  As  Christ  arose  with  the  eleven  disciples 
and  stepped  out  on  the  stairway  leading  down  to  the  silent  road,  bathed 
that  Passover  night  in  the  radiance  of  the  paschal  moon,  His  eye  would 
naturally  rest  on  the  richly  clustered  vine  that  climbed  against  the  wall  of 
the  house.     Instantly  it  gave  the  key  to  the  thoughts  of  His  heart.     He  was 


222  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

about  to  leave  those  men.  Never  again  could  the  conditions  of  intercourse 
be  precisely  the  same  as  in  these  years  in  which  they  had  sojourned  together. 
But  the  love,  the  intimacy,  the  confidence  was  to  be  the  same.  How  then 
could  He  make  clear  to  them  that  though  separated  in  the  flesh  their  kin- 
ship was  not  to  lessen,  but  to  deepen  in  the  years  to  come  ?  And  the  vine, 
growing  there  before  them  as  they  stepped  out  into  the  silent  Passover 
night,  supplied  the  thought.  As  the  vine  drew  its  life  from  the  root  buried 
out  of  sight,  and  as  the  branches  brought  forth  their  fruit  through  the  unseen 
currents  of  life  which  flowed  from  that  hidden  root,  so  henceforth  their  life 
in  Him  and  His  friendship  with  them  would  be  realized  by  their  spiritual 
communion  with  an  unseen  friend.  So  the  great  words  were  spoken, 
"  Abide  in  Me  ;  henceforth  I  call  you  not  servants  but  friends  ".  That  word 
"henceforth"  marked  a  cleavage  line  in  their  spiritual  history.  On  one 
side  "servants";  on  the  other  side  "friends".  Strange,  surely,  that  not 
till  the  night  of  His  leaving  them,  when,  according  to  human  standards 
friendship  was  to  end.  He  admitted  these  eleven  men  to  the  high  intimacy 
of  friendship.  Now  what  was  the  condition  of  entrance  into  this  richer 
experience  r  How  were  they  to  cross  over  the  "  henceforth  "  from  servitude 
to  friendship .''  The  condition  was  obedie^ice.  Mystical  in  its  character,  this 
higher  friendship  was  to  be  supremely  practical  in  its  realization.  The 
ethical  condition  of  obedience  was  emphatic.  Here,  indeed,  we  touch  one 
of  the  most  suggestive  features  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  I  sometimes  think 
that  a  great  work  has  yet  to  be  written  on  the  ethics  of  St.  John.  The  most 
spiritual  of  all  the  evangelists,  the  ethical  note  of  his  Gospel  is  as  clear  as 
the  ethic  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  This  is  especially  true  of  St.  John's 
doctrine  of  obedience.  In  John's  Gospel,  obedience  has  a  threefold  influence, 
first  as  the  condiion  of  intellectual  illumination ;  second,  as  the  con- 
dition of  spiritual  communion,  and  third,  as  the  condition  of  peace  of  soul. 
"If  any  man  will  do  the  will,  he  shall  know  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of 
God", — obedience  as  the  organ  of  intellectual  illumination.  "Ye  are  My 
friends  if  you  do  whatsoever  I  command  you  ", — obedience  as  the  organ  of 
spiritual  communion.  "  If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  (blessed)  are  ye  if 
ye  do  them, — obedience  the  organ  of  blessedness  and  peace  of  soul. 

Through  that  obedience,  the  friendship  of  Christ  as  a  spiritual  experi- 
ence was  intended  to  produce  a  threefold  blessing.  First,  transformation 
of  motive  in  service ;  second,  revelation  of  purpose  in  discipline ;  and  third, 
assimilation  of  character  through  fellowship.  These  are  the  three  distinctive 
marks  of  that  deeper  life  of  fellowship  to  which  on  the  eve  of  His  departure 
He  admitted  His  disciples.  First,  transformatiofi  of  motive  in  service.  The 
motive  of  service  in  the  slave  or  bond-servant  is  either  fear  or  reward  ;  the 
motive  in  the  friend  is  co-operative  love.  The  friend  anticipates  his  master's 
word  and  rejoices  in  doing  his  master's  will.  Friendship  is  the  transfigura- 
tion of  service ;  the  creation  of  a  new  motive ;  redeeming  life  from  its 
drudgery,  and  sending  the  pulse-beat  of  joy  into  the  most  trivial  task. 

Secondly,  friendship  in  this  spiritual  interpretation,  is  the  revelation  of 
purpose  in  discipline.     "  I  call  you  friends  "  said  Jesus,  "  for  all  things  that  I 


THE  FRIENDSHIPS  OF  JESUS.  223 

have  heard  of  My  Father  I  make  known  to  you".  The  slave  works  in 
ignorance  of  his  master's  purpose.  "  His  not  to  reason  why,  his  but  to  do 
or  die  ".  But  it  is  the  privilege  of  friendship  to  share  its  plans,  and  to  the 
friends  of  Jesus  there  is  given  a  constant  unfolding  of  His  purposes  for  them 
and  through  them.  Through  all  the  web  and  woof  of  experience,  the  friend 
of  Jesus  can  trace  the  golden  threads  which  reveal  the  pattern  of  the  Father's 
love.  So  suffering  and  sorrow  became  transfigured  through  the  revelation 
of  a  divine  purpose  in  life,  and  submission  to  the  divine  will  becomes  the 
soul's  deepest  joy. 

Lastly,  the  friendship  of  Jesus  as  a  spiritual  communion,  brings  with  it 
assimilation  of  character  through  daily  fellowship.  The  servant  may  grow  in 
faithfulness  and  sympathy  with  his  master,  but  friendship,  as  an  intimacy  of 
soul,  brings  with  it,  as  its  supreme  blessing,  the  ever  deepening  assimilation 
of  life  and  character  into  the  likeness  of  the  Master  himself.  And  that  is 
the  coronation  of  the  Friendship  of  Jesus. 


*THE  CROSS  THE  WORLD'S  EVANGEL, 
OR  THE  CHRISTIAN  LAW  OF  SACRIFICE  IN  RELATION  TO  MISSIONS. 

(St.  John   12  :  20-32.) 

BY    REA^.    HENRY    C.    :m:ABIE,  T).    D., 

Secretary  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  Boston,  Mass. 

The  Occasion. — It  is  the  third  day  of  Passion  Week ;  it  is  the  last  day 
of  our  Lord's  public  ministry  to  His  own  people  Israel, — the  day  on  which 
"  He  departed  and  hid  Himself  from  them  ".  He  had  come  "  unto  His 
own,  and  His  own  received  Him  not".  Because  the  house  of  Israel  knew 
not  the  day  of  her  visitation,  she  was  left  to  herself  desolate. 

Just  at  this  juncture  an  event  of  great  significance  occurs.  Among  the 
multitude  of  those  who  had  come  up  to  the  Feast  of  the  Passover  were 
many  Gentile  proselytes  to  the  Jewish  faith,  who  at  least  half  believed  that 
Jesus  was  "  the  desire  of  all  nations  ".  Among  these  were  certain  Greeks 
who  wished  to  see  Jesus.  He  had  just  made  His  royal  entry  into  Jerusa- 
lem, and  His  name  was  on  all  tongues ;  they  must  not  miss  the  opportunity 
of  personal  audience  with  One  to  Whom  the  hosannas  had  been  sung.  The 
announcement  of  this  visit  fell  on  the  spirit  of  Jesus  in  a  psychic  hour,  and 
it  was  the  harbinger  of  a  new  epoch  of  universal  evangelization. 

Such  a  visit  must  have  presented  to  Jesus  a  strong  temptation.  The 
whole  Roman  empire  was  about  to  open  to  apostolic  approach ;  the  coming 
Europe  would  be  a  theatre  for  its  operation.  Britain  would  be  His  to  exploit, 
the  new  world  His  to  pre-empt. 

His  vision,  sweeping  across  all  the  oceans,  embraced  Japan,  China, 
India,  Africa,  and  all  the  Islands  of  the  sea,  waiting  for  His  coming.  The 
prospect  was  such  as  never  gpreeted  statesman  or  world-conqueror  before. 

But  fascinating  as  was  this  prospect,  it  was  not  His  to  realize  in  a  per- 
sonal, earthly  career.  A  g^eat  summer  with  teeming  harvest  awaiting  other 
reapers  than  Himself,  was  ahead,  but  for  Him — winter,  death,  the  death  of 
the  cross  intervened.  Even  as  these  new  Magi  knocked  at  the  door,  that 
cross  loomed  high  on  the  horizon.  Without  pausing  even  to  give  answer 
to  the  uncommon  request,  His  reply  was  instant:  "The  hour  is  come  that 
the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  except 
a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone  ;  but 
if  it  die,  it  beareth  much  fruit".  Not  that  Jesus  did  not  appreciate  the 
appearance  of  this  new  day-star  upon  His  dark  horizon,  nor  that  He  did 
not  value  the  wealth  of  waiting  harvests  which  the  day  would  ripen  :  He 
simply  put  them  away  for  the  present.  Just  now  He  is  putting  first  things 
first ;  the  atonement  must  be  wrought ;  that  conditions  everything.     That 


♦Delivered   at   the   Sixth    Conference,    held    at    the    Trinity    Union    Methodist    Episcopal    Church, 
March    g,    1904. 

224 


THE  CROSS  THE   WORLD'S  EVANGEL.  225 

which  lay  in  the  Father's  will  as  something  eternally  conceived,  but  now 
historically  to  be  accomplished,  was  of  supreme  moment.  So  Jesus  drops 
all  other  prizes  that  tempt  His  imagination,  and  in  one  cry  of  complete 
abandon  He  breaks  forth,  "  Father,  glorify  Thy  name  ".  It  is  the  most 
consummate  self-surrender  in  all  history. 

It  is  significant  that  the  particular  moment  when  Jesus  so  gave  Him- 
self up  to  His  cross,  should  have  been  precisely  that  at  which  these  Greeks 
came.  Up  to  this  time,  Christ  had  magnified  His  errand  as  "  unto  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel",  but  now,  since  its  odor  is  to  fill  the  world, 
the  alabaster  box  which  contained  the  precious  nard  must  be  broken.  The 
enmity  of  the  Jews  was  pressing  Him  up  to  the  Roman  cross,  but  the 
Father's  will  working  within  Him  was  also  constraining  Him  to  His  volun- 
tary self-sacrifice.  All  middle  walls  of  partition,  as  between  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile, must  now  be  broken  down ;  Christianity  must  become  catholicised. 
Christ's  foot  was  upon  the  border  of  a  yielding  world ;  but  before  He  can 
advance  an  inch  He  must  turn  away  to  die.  It  was  bitter,  but  it  was  sav- 
ing, as  it  was  loyal  to  every  moral  reality.     Such  was  the  occasion. 

Aspects  of  Sacrifice.  We  are  now  brought  to  the  consideration  of  the 
offering  itself,  in  behalf  of  the  world,  which  the  unique  death  of  Jesus  con- 
stituted. It  is  the  law  which  underlies  this  death,  commonly  called  "  the 
law  of  sacrifice  ",  which  we  now  study.  We  shall  consider  this  law  in  two 
aspects : — 

First,  as  the  atoning  offering  of  Christ  in  behalf  of  the  world,  and 
second,  as  the  archetype  of  Christian  self-sacrifice  in  behalf  of  others. 

I. 

And  first,  let  us  consider  that  objective  offering  which  Christ  made  of 
Himself  for  the  redemption  of  the  world.  In  the  expression  in  v.  24, 
"  Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die",  all  this  is  implied; 
but  in  V.  31  Jesus  reiterates  the  principle  in  language  most  unequivocal,  as 
setting  forth  the  character  and  bearing  of  the  death  He  died.  He  exclaims, 
"  Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world:  now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be 
cast  out.  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
myself  ".  The  plain  meaning  of  the  two  passages  just  quoted  will  compel  us 
to  conclude  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  in  behalf  of  the  world  was  a  judg- 
ment-death. But  before  defining  m  what  respects  this  is  so,  some  prelimi- 
nary considerations  are  needful,  in  order  to  a  clear  understanding  of  terms. 

The  Scripture-Term  Judgment.  The  meaning  of  this  term  "  judgment  " 
has  been  grossly  misconceived,  and,  in  consequence,  the  most  unhappy 
revolt  against  its  use  exists  in  the  modern  mind.  By  many  the  term  has 
been  regarded  as  synonymous  with  a  sentence  of  reprobation  or  damna- 
tion. But  this  is  due  to  an  oversight  of  certain  additional  and  very  differ- 
ent and  gracious  senses  in  which  the  Bible  uses  the  term.  The  word  often 
is  employed  in  the  sense  of  intervention,  vindication,  albeit  it  is  a  vindica- 
tion which  has  regard,  also,  to  the  divine  holiness.  For  example,  in  the 
fifty-fourth  Psalm  we  find  the  prayer,  "  Save  me,  O  God ;  judge  me  by  Thy 


2  26  2 HE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

strength ".  The  Prophet  Jeremiah  declares  of  the  coming  Redeemer, 
"He  shall  judge  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy".  That  is,  He  will 
deliver  them  from  the  oppressor,  reversing  the  false  position  imposed  on 
them  by  their  cruel  persecutors.  Matthew,  quoting  from  Isaiah,  says, 
"  He  shall  show  judgment  to  the  Gentiles  *  *  *  the  bruised  reed  shall 
He  not  break,  and  smoking  flax  shall  He  not  quench,  till  He  send  forth 
judgment  unto  victory,  and  in  His  name  shall  the  Gentiles  trust".  What 
could  be  more  tender  ?  It  is  like  the  opening  of  a  dove-cote  for  the  ingath- 
ering of  heathen  souls  who  are  expected  to  come  flying  as  clouds  that  they 
may  home  themselves  in  God.  After  Christ's  healing  of  the  man  born 
blind,  described  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  John,  Christ  promulgates  His 
great  law  of  grace  in  the  expression,  "  For  judgment  came  I  into  this 
world" — a  new  kind  of  judgment,  a  judgment  according  to  grace — "that 
they  which  see  not  may  see  ". 

The  Moral  Acknowledgjuent  in  Christ's  Work.  But  a  second  thing 
which  needs  to  be  premised,  in  connection  with  the  law  of  sacrifice  is  this  : 
that  in  the  work  of  Christ,  the  emphasis  properly  belongs  to  the  moral 
acknowledgment  therein  made,  rather  than  to  the  mere  pain  He  bore. 

In  some  conceptions  of  the  atonement,  supposedly  most  orthodox,  too 
large  an  emphasis  has  been  put  upon  the  sufferings  of  Christ  as  such ;  as  if 
the  sufferings  won  the  pardon.  The  old  view  of  a  "  limited  atonement  " 
sprang  out  of  the  conviction  that  in  the  divine  mind  there  was  an  exact 
estimate  of  the  amount  of  suffering  required  for  the  sins  of  a  given  number 
of  the  race.  That  which  is  sometimes  called  "  the  commercial  view  "  of  the 
atonement,  is  objectionable  for  a  similar  reason,  that  a  certain  amount  of 
pain  is  conceived  as  an  offset  to  a  definite  amount  of  sin.  Thus  the  atone- 
ment would  be  purely  a  matter  of  the  exact  payment  of  debt.  But  this  con- 
ception would  be  incongruous  with  the  necessity  of  any  real  pardon. 

When  Jesus  was  upon  earth,  while  indeed  He  referred  at  times  to  the 
depth  of  His  sorrow,  yet  He  did  not  magnify  the  mere  suffering  He  was 
called  to  bear,  nor  appeal  for  pity  on  its  account.  Even  on  the  way  to 
Calvary,  when  "  there  followed  Him  the  great  multitude  of  the  people,  and 
of  women  who  bewailed  and  lamented  Him  ",  He  turned  unto  them  and 
said,  "  Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  Me,  but  weep  for  yourselves 
and  for  your  children ".  Jesus  would  not  have  any  mere  compassion. 
Some  of  the  mediaeval  conceptions  expressed  in  portraits  of  the  Christ,  rep- 
resenting Him  as  an  object  of  pity,  convey  most  misleading  impressions ; 
they  strike  one  as  effeminate,  and  often  as  sycophantic.  Christ,  while  the 
greatest  of  sufferers,  was  only  incidentally  such ;  up  to  the  last  moment  of 
His  heart-break.  He  was  ever  actuated  by  the  principles  of  the  highest  self- 
respect  ;  and  He  always  conveyed  the  impression  that  with  perfect  self-com- 
mand He  was  moving  towards  the  sublimest  moral  goal.  There  was  some- 
thing unmistakably  deeper  to  be  affected  by  the  cross,  than  the  mere  sym- 
pathy of  mankind.  The  acknowledgment  made  in  the  moral  realm,  of  the 
righteous  and  yet  gracious  relations  with  which  Jesus  was  dealing,  was  the 
central  thing.     Says  Dr.  Godet :  "  When  Christ  gave  out  His  last  submis- 


THE  CROSS  THE   WORLD'S  EVANGEL.  227 

sive  cry  upon  the  cross,  it  was  in  one  conscience  alone  that  this  judgment 
of  the  world's  sin,  the  echo  of  that  which  God  pronounces  in  heaven,  took 
place.  But  as  there  is  only  one  rationality  in  all  intelligent  minds,  so  in 
reality  there  is  only  one  and  the  same  conscience  in  all  moral  beings ;  and 
thus  it  is  that  the  cry  which  came  from  that  one  perfectly  normal  conscience, 
is  yet  to  re-echo  in  all  other  human  consciences ".  The  most  valuable 
thing  about  the  humiliation  of  Christ,  was  that  He  assumed  it  with  unques- 
tioning submission.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  it  is  called  "  the  obedi- 
ence ".  This  was  its  terminal  point ;  it  was  the  acknowledged  propriety 
of  it  all,  that  so  vindicated  God. 

Christ's  offering  was  thus  an  answer  to  something  final  in  God's  uni- 
verse. Dr.  P.  T.  Forsyth,  principal  of  Hackney  College,  London,  who  in 
various  recent  papers*  has  thrown  great  light  upon  the  atonement,  has 
pointed  out  that  later  theological  thought,  while  amply  recognizing  the  prin- 
ciple of  sacrifice, — sacrifice  as  mere  altruism, — has  done  scant  justice  to  the 
idea  of  judgment  in  its  far-reaching  Biblical  sense ;  a  sense  which  has  rela- 
tion to  grace  as  well  as  law.  This  conviction  is  deeply  shared  b>  the  writer 
of  this  paper. 

Judgment  more  Final  than  Sacrijice.  Now,  the  idea  of  sacrifice  as  an 
end  is  without  warrant  either  in  Scripture  or  reason.  At  best  it  can  be 
only  a  means ;  sacrifice  is  never  an  end,  except  to  the  ascetics,  A  man  has 
no  more  right  to  sacrifice  himself  in  the  sense  of  destroying  or  injuring 
himself  than  he  has  to  commit  suicide.  Whenever,  as  in  monasticism,  or  in 
the  rites  of  self-oblation  which  characterize  Hinduism,  or  in  self-applied 
legalistic  rigors,  the  pains  inflicted  are  thought  to  have  a  value  or  merit  in 
themselves,  they  are  idolatrous  rather  than  Christian ;  they  are  morbid  and 
always  end  disastrously.  Judgment,  however,  is  a  proper  end  m  itself;  it 
means  the  vindication  of  holiness,  of  righteousness,  even  of  such  righteous- 
ness as  embraces  in  it  all  that  we  include  in  the  terms  love  and  grace ;  and 
beyond  such  vindication  one  cannot  go ;  the  last  standard  of  appeal  has 
been  reached.  It  was  to  such  a  standard  that  the  atonement  had  refer- 
ence. At  the  very  basis,  therefore,  of  the  law  of  Christian  sacrifice  lies  this 
principle  of  judgment  so  needing  to  be  restored  to  the  thought  of  our  day. 
This  term  "judgment"  is  only  another  word  for  the  redeeming  realism  of 
God's  universe  with  both  a  severe  and  a  gracious  bearing.  When,  there- 
fore, we  shall  shortly  say,  as  we  must,  that  Christ  in  the  work  of  His  cross 
had  a  supreme  reference  to  principles  of  judgment,  we  shall  simply  mean 
that  He  was  doing  iustice  to  all  the  moral  and  spiritual  situation  required 
in  His  Father's  endeavor  to  save  the  world.  He  was  dealing  with  the 
actual  realities  in  the  case — the  realities  of  grace  as  well  as  of  holiness — 
such  realities  as  the  final  judgment  will  disclose. 

Christ's  Death  a  Judgment- Death.  We  are  now  prepared,  I  trust,  to 
come  to  the  consideration  of  Christ's  sacrificial-death  as  a  judgment-death 
in  behalf  of  the  world.     By  the  sacrificial-death,  we  mean  something  very 


*  See  Christian  World  Pulpit,  Oct.  i,  1902,  and  May  20,  1903. 


228  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

different  from  the  tragedy  of  the  crucifixion.*  The  crucifixion  was  an 
expression  of  human  sin  at  its  worst,  whereas  the  cross  of  the  atonement 
was  the  expression  of  God  at  His  best.  The  crucifixion  was  the  most 
criminal  act  in  the  history  of  man,  whereas  the  atoning  act  was  the  sub- 
limest  act  in  the  moral  history  of  God ;  it  was  the  historical  expression  of 
that  which  was  voluntary  and  eternal  in  God's  character,  government  and 
practical  attitude  toward  men.  This  atonement  at  its  base  was  an  invisible 
thing.  It  dealt  with  factors  like  these :  with  the  divine  government,  the 
divine  holiness,  the  divine  love ;  and  all  these  as  related  to  human  sin  in  its 
inmost  essence.  In  all,  then,  that  Christ  was  exacting  on  the  divine  side. 
He  was  in  some  profound  way  experiencing  not  merely  mortal  death,  but 
that  death  which  is  immeasurably  deeper,  namely,  that  spiritual  death,  that 
separation  from  God  which  is  the  consequence  of  sin.  In  this  profound 
sense  He  "  tasted  death  for  every  man  ".  He  was  deserted  for  the  hour, 
that  all  who  believe  in  Him  may  be  forever  received  into  fellowship  with 
the  divine. 

It  is  well  known  that  William  Cowper,  the  poet,  passed  much  of  his 
life  under  clouds  of  melancholia,  and  that  in  his  death  he  morbidly  felt 
that  he  was  deserted.  On  a  visit  to  his  grave,  Mrs.  Browning  took  up  this 
morbid  thought  of  Cowper's  and  thus  wrote  correcting  it : — 

"  Deserted  1    God  could  separate  from  his  own  essence  rather: 
And  Adam's  sins  have  swept  between  the  righteous  Son  and  Father; 
Yea,  once,  Immanuel's  orphaned  cry  His  universe  hath  shaken — 
It  went  up  single,  echoless, '  My  God,  I  am  forsaken  ! ' 

•'  It  went  up  from  the  Holy's  lips  amid  His  lost  creation, 
That,  of  the  lost,  no  son  should  use  those  words  of  desolation ; 
That  earth's  worst  phrensies,  marring  hope,  should  mar  not  hope's  fruition. 
And  I,  on  Cowper's  grave,  should  see  his  rapture  in  a  vision  1" 

The  death  of  Jesus  was  intrinsically  a  judgment-death.  Perhaps  the 
term  "judgment-death"  which  we  employ,  or,  to  use  a  broader  term, 
"judgment-infliction  "  would  be  better  understood  in  the  light  of  a  concrete 
example.  Of  course,  the  judgment-death  which  Jesus  bore  was  a  matter  so 
original  and  unique  that  no  human  illustration  of  it  can  be  adequate.  An 
illustration,  however,  may  help.  An  acquaintance  of  the  writer  had  a  noble 
young  son,  who,  however,  on  one  occasion  disobeyed  his  father  and  then 
sought  to  cover  disobedience  by  falsehood.  The  father,  on  ascertaining  the 
facts,  summoned  his  son  and  asked  him  what  he  thought  should  be  done  about 
it.  The  son  replied,  "  you  should  whip  me  ".  The  father  assented,  and 
took  the  boy  aside  to  inflict  the  chastisement;  when,  however,  the  father 
came  to  use  the  whip  his  great  heart  broke  and,  instead  of  striking  the  boy, 
he  said,  "  I  cannot  think  of  whipping  you ;  you  are  a  small,  delicate  boy. 


*Itis  indsed  true  that  the  New  Testam;nt  references  to  the  crucifixion  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  place 
value  on  the  crucifying  act.  It  appears  to  us,  however,  that  Christ  simply  adopted  that  which  was  intended 
to  be  the  mark  of  His  shame — His  execution  upon  a  cross — as  the  symbol  of  His  moral  enthronement  secured 
through  a  deeper  dying  and  its  consequent  resurrection;  and  thus  "by  the  most  exalted  irony  of  history," 
the  Neiv  Testament  represents  Christianity  as  glorying  in  the  cross:  glorying  not  in  what  criminal  men 
intended,  but  in  what  God  purposed  and  accomplished  on  the  ground  of  what  He  Himself  had  wrought  on  the 
divine  side  of  the  Calvary  enactment. 


THE  CROSS  THE  WORLD'S  EVANGEL.  229 

and  I  am  a  large,  strong  man.  I  can  better  bear  the  whipping  than  you  ". 
So,  removing  his  own  coat,  the  father  bade  the  boy  to  lay  the  whip  on  his 
own  back.  The  boy  struck  a  blow  or  two,  but  becoming  overwhelmed 
with  grief  ran  away  to  his  chamber,  where  he  was  shortly  found  begging 
the  divine  forgiveness.  It  will  be  readily  believed  that  such  a  form  of  cor- 
rection needed  no  repetition.  Bronson  Alcott,  the  transcendental  philoso- 
pher, at  one  time  introduced  a  similar  form  of  discipline  in  his  boys'  school 
in  Boston.  For  certain  transgressions,  the  master,  instead  of  the  pupil, 
was  to  receive  the  punishment.  The  first  time  it  was  applied  the  culprit 
broke  down,  and  the  school  broke  down.  So  marked  was  its  influence  that 
it  seemed  likely  to  eventuate  in  an  evangelical  revival.  Both  these  forms  of 
judgment-infliction  referred  to,  the  one  in  the  family  and  the  other  in  the 
school,  in  principle  are  akin  to  that  which  under  grace  is  employed  in  the 
divine  government,  and  for  moral  power  the  principle  is  unequalled. 

On  the  basis  of  the  judgment-death,  or  infliction,  which  God  in  Christ 
endured,  human  salvation  was  made  possible.  By  this  we  mean  that  in 
effect  certain  great  judicial  results  affecting  God's  government  over  men — 
His  sf.ving  mastery  of  men — were  achieved,  results  which  could  have  been 
secured  in  no  other  way. 

Four  Objective  Achievements  of  the  Atonement.  We  name  four  of  these 
results,  results  which  enter  into  the  objective  side  of  the  atonement.  The 
first  result  was  the  acknowledgment,  made  in  Christ's  experience,  of  the  due 
judgment  or  condemnation  which  belongs  to  the  collective  evil  of  the  race- — 
that  judgment  which  the  sin-principle  merited:  "Now  is  the  judgment  of 
this  world  ".  The  second  result  was  the  casting  out  of  the  self-principle,  or 
the  false  philosophy  which  characterizes  Satan  himself,  and  on  which  he 
also  depends  for  the  subversion  of  God's  ideals  in  human  life ;  the  fallacious 
world-principle  of  which  Satan  is  the  author,  by  Christ's  moral  attitude  up 
to  the  moment  he  expired,  was  set  at  nought,  was  judged  to  its  potential 
destruction,  as  having  no  rational  or  moral  justification.  "  The  prince  of 
this  world  hath  been  judged  ".  "  The  prince  of  this  world  cometh  and  hath 
nothing  in  me  ".  "  Now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out  ".  This 
meant  the  ultimate  destruction  of  Satan  himself  objectively,  as  well  as  in  us. 
The  power  of  Christ's  cross  achieved  it.  The  third  result  was  this  :  Christ's 
death  was  a  judgment-death  in  the  sense  that  it  potentially  destroyed  the 
nexus  whereby  sin  and  spiritual  death  had  been  bound  together.  So  now, 
through  what  Christ  effected  on  His  cross,  notwithstanding  man's  sin,  we 
need  not  spiritually  and  eternally  die.  This,  of  course,  works  subjectively 
in  us,  but  it  was  first  in  principle  a  historical  achievement,  and  so  objective 
also.  Christ  came  "  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil  ".  Thus  redemption  is 
deeper  than  natural  causation.  And  the  fourth  result  was  this :  Through 
this  judgment-death  on  the  cross,  mankind  was  bought  in  as  a  reversionary 
treasure,  and  so  became  adjudged  to  Christ  forever  as  His  peculiar  posses- 
sion. At  all  these  points  the  atonement  in  principle  was  substitutionary, 
and  so  really  vicarious :  it  was  more  than  vicarious ;  it  was  vicario-vital, 
inasmuch  as  in  the  atoning  work  of  Christ  it  is  always  implied  that  its 


230  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

benefits  inure  to  those  who  are  presupposed  to  become  through  faith  vitally 
one  with  Christ. 

In  all  this  work  of  the  judgment- death  the  divine  love  was  peculiarly 
shown.  Divine  love  in  the  Scriptures,  in  fact,  "has  no  meaning  apart  from 
the  consideration  that  it  took  hold  of  the  central  situation  of  man's  sin  and 
guilt ".  Love  dealt  with  these  in  grace,  instead  of  according  to  their  strict 
merits.  Perhaps  we  need  to  pause  here,  for  this  needs  to  be  emphasized. 
Nothing  in  current  thought  is  so  misunderstood  as  the  divine  love.  Divine 
love  has  a  peculiarity  :  it  is  utterly  unlike  any  other  form  of  love  in  the 
world,  because  it  enters  into  responsibility  for  human  sin  and  guilt,  as  the 
moral  situation,  as  the  divine  grace  and  the  saving  work  require.  Accord- 
ingly, divine  love  can  deal  with  man  in  complete  holiness,  and  at  the  same 
time  safeguard  his  endless  future.  So  it  is  that  Christ  shall  "bring  forth 
judgment  unto  victory",  that  judgment  becomes  the  foundation  of  a  system 
of  grace.  Thus,  the  salvation  of  the  Gospel  is  a  salvation  by  judgment 
rather  than  from  it;  nothing  can  go  behind  it;  it  is  a  basis  of  adjudication, 
a  method  of  settlement  in  grace  and  righteousness,  of  all  the  claims  of  the 
holy  God  upon  the  fallen  sinner. 

Through  this  fourfold  achievement,  we  understand  that  the  judgment 
enacted  by  Christ  on  His  cross  extended  to  the  deepest  realities  of  the 
moral  universe,  in  this  world  and  the  next.  In  effect,  it  anticipated  every 
essential  moral  issue  that  can  cause  dread  to  the  human  soul  in  anticipation 
of  the  last  day.  The  penal  difficulty  with  respect  to  past  transgressions  has 
been  potentially  met.  Satan,  man's  great  accuser,  his  arch  enemy,  has 
been  potentially  destroyed.  The  death  doom  entailed  by  sin  has  been 
potentially  cancelled.  .And  we  all  in  the  intent  of  God  have  been  adjudged 
to  Christ  as  His  potential  possession.  We  are  regarded  as  Christ's  own, 
ransomed  unto  Himself,  His  bride,  as  dear  to  Him  as  the  apple  of  His 
eye.  With  such  results  as  these  in  principle  accomplished,  and  personally 
appropriated  by  the  vital  faith  of  the  believer,  all  fear  of  the  last  day  is  cast 
out,  so  that  with  confidence  we  may  sing : 

"  Bold  shall  I  stand  in  that  great  day, 
For  who  aught  to  my  charge  shall  lay  ? 
Fully  absolved  from  these  I  am, 
From  sin  and  fear,  from  guilt  and  shame". 

That  day  is  to  become  our  coronation  day,  a  day  in  which  Christ  Him- 
self has  vastly  more  at  stake  than  have  we.  Thus  in  the  profoundest  sense 
Christ's  judgment-death  was  an  anticipation  of  all  possible  expressions  of 
judgment  in  the  future ;  and  it  becomes  for  all  men  the  touchstone  of 
character  and  destiny. 

II. 

The  Secondary  Form  of  the  Law  of  Sacrifice.  We  now  pass  to  that 
secondary  form  of  the  law  of  sacrifice,  which  springs  out  of  the  primary 
one  we  have  just  considered,  and  is  conformable  to  it;  that  self-sacrifice  in 
behalf  of  others  which  the  followers  of  Christ  are  to  exhibit.  As  for  their 
Lord,  so  for  them,  "  except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die, 


THE  CROSS  THE  WORLD'S  EVANGEL.  231 

it  abideth  alone  ".  Not  that  any  portion  of  the  disciples'  suffering  was 
needed  to  complete  the  atonement.  That,  as  a  finished  work,  stands  ever 
by  itself,  albeit  it  has  implications  which  involve  the  disciple.  We  are  to 
"  fill  up  on  our  part  that  which  is  lacking  of  the  aftlictions  of  Christ  in  our 
rtesh  for  His  body's  sake  ". 

This  occasion  of  the  visit  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  utterances  it  evoked 
from  Christ,  is  one  of  three  momentous  hours  in  His  career,  in  which  He 
was  authenticated  by  an  audible  voice  spoken  by  the  Father  right  out  of  the 
blue.  The  first  occasion  was  at  the  baptism  ;  the  second  was  at  the  trans- 
figuration ;  and  the  third  was  this  occasion  when  the  Greeks  came.  There 
is  something  common  to  the  teaching  of  each  of  these  outstanding  hours ; 
and  that  common  teaching  is  fundamental.  It  concerns  Christ's  coming 
death  and  resurrection.  These  two  things  are  really  twin  parts  of  one  indi- 
visible fact,  the  consummated  atonement.  For  in  the  Scriptures  the  cross 
always  eventuates  in  the  resurrection,  and  the  resurrection  always  presup- 
poses the  atonement.  The  resurrection  is  not  conceived  as  a  mere  survival 
of  a  Jesus  who  was  slain,  but  rather  as  the  affixing  of  heaven's  seal  to  the 
validity  and  value  of  the  judgment-death  endured.  It  was  "not  possible 
that  He  should  be  holden  of  death  ",  because  through  His  supernatural 
judgment-death.  He  had  destroyed  him  that  had  the  power  of  natural  death, 
that  is,  the  devil.  At  the  Jordan,  on  the  mount,  and  at  the  coming  of  the 
Greeks,  Christ  was  striking  the  keynote  of  His  complete  gospel,  namely, 
this  law  of  sacrifice, — the  one  only  law  which  the  Father  emphasized  with  a 
voice,  nay  with  a  thrice  repeated  voice,  from  the  eternities ; — He  could  not 
withhold  this  emphatic  approval  when  Jesus  His  Son  was  accepting  His 
own  unique  dying  and  living  again  as  central  to  all  His  mission. 

At  the  baptism,  the  approval  concerned  Christ's  official  perfectmg  as 
the  last  Adam ;  on  the  mount  the  voice  concerned  the  message  essential  to 
be  preached,  if  demons  were  to  be  cast  out  and  mankind  transformed  into 
divine  Sonship;  the  message  of  "  His  decease  ",  or  "exodus" — that  trium- 
phant passage  of  the  Red  Sea  of  His  judgment-death — "  which  He  was  to 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem  ; "  while  the  voice  on  this  third  occasion  accentua- 
ted the  only  principle  on  which  Christ's  successors  could  gain  power  for 
their  world-wide  task,  namely,  the  principle  of  sacrificial  love.  As  Christ 
had  gained  His  authority  to  redeem  through  His  cross,  so  the  disciple  would 
gain  His  power  to  impress  the  salvation  in  that  cross  through  a  similarly 
surrendered  life,  and  the  spiritual  quickening  which  would  follow  it.  Hence 
those  words  in  vs.  25  and  26:  "He  that  loveth  his  life  loseth  it;  and  he 
that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal.  If  any  man 
.serve  Me,  let  him  follow  Me ;  and  where  I  am  there  shall  also  My  servant 
be :  if  any  man  serve  Me,  him  will  the  Father  honor  ". 

But  here  again  we  need  to  be  on  our  guard  in  interpreting  the  law  of 
sacrifice,  that  we  do  not  fall  into  ascetic  error.  As  with  Christ,  the  emphasis 
was  primarily  upon  the  acknowledgment  made  by  His  conscience  rather 
than  the  pain  He  bore,  so  in  the  life  of  the  disciple,  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  moral  claim  in  love,  whatever  its  cost  to  self-gratification,  is  the  main 


232  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

thing.  The  moment  one  imagines,  in  a  line  of  missionary  service,  for 
example,  that  he  is  performing  some  excess  of  devotion,  some  work  of  super- 
erogation, or  acquiring  merit  with  God,  he  is  false  to  Christ's  law.  The 
highest  form  of  self-abnegation,  even  of  martyrdom,  ever  expressed  by  the 
most  heroic  devotee,  whether  in  a  Francis  of  Assisi,  or  in  a  Paton  of  the 
New  Hebrides,  is  at  its  best  only  the  manifestation  of  an  elementary  relation 
to  Christ.     In  this  realm,  heroics  are  wholly  out  of  the  question. 

Why  the  Necessity  of  Sacrifice  at  all.  But  some  one  will  ask,  where  is 
the  moral  necessity  for  this  law  of  sacrifice  ?  This  law  is  really  the  deepest 
paradox  in  Christianity.  The  necessity  for  it  lies  in  the  fact  of  sin.  Upon 
the  foreseen  certainty  that  sin  would  come  into  the  world,  God  saw  it  could 
be  overcome  in  no  other  way  than  through  a  great  judgment-death  on  the 
part  of  His  Son,  and  through  a  new  habit  of  life  engendered  in  His  people, 
conformable  to  that  death.  If  there  were  no  sin,  it  would  be  unnecessary 
in  the  moral  realm  for  the  "grain  of  wheat  to  fall  into  the  earth  and  die  ". 
Angels  follow  no  such  law;  unfallen  beings  would  not  need  to.  But  "as 
through  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  through  sin",  so 
through  death,  in  another  form,  the  havoc  sin  had  wrought  was  undone, 
"that  through  death  He  might  bring  to  nought  him  that  had  the  power 
of  death  ".  Through  obedience  to  this  law  by  the  Spirit,  the  sin-principle, 
the  self-centered  principle  of  being  which  Satan  brought  in  receives  its  death 
blow,  and  evil  is  progressively  overcome  and  eliminated  in  so  far  as  place  is 
given  to  the  working  of  the  higher  law  of  vicarious  love. 

Sin,  how  Expiated?  It  is  in  these  deep  two-fold  senses, — through  the 
work  of  Christ  objectively  on  the  cross,  and  subjectively  in  the  believer, ^ — 
that  sin  is  expiated ;  it  is  potentially  destroyed.  The  moral  difficulty  with 
which  God  in  Christ  was  dealing  in  His  law  of  sacrifice,  was  that  of  estab- 
lishing a  consistent  method  of  bestowing  pardon  on  the  sinner,  and  at  the 
same  time  of  creating  within  him  a  loathing  of  his  sin.  Be  it  observed  that 
this  is  not  expiation  in  any  pagan  sense  of  that  term ;  it  should  never  be 
confounded  with  it.  It  had  no  reference  to  God's  disposition  as  if  that 
needed  to  be  placated  or  appeased  ;  it  had  reference  to  the  moral  necessities 
of  the  case.  Had  there  been  no  proper  regard  for  these,  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind,  quite  apart  from  what  was  demanded  by  God,  could  not  have 
been  satisfied.  To  have  forgiven  sin  without  such  a  work  as  was  wrought 
by  Christ  upon  His  cross  would  have  legitimized  it.  But  now,  since  in 
connection  with  this  objective  achievement  of  Christ's  atonement,  a  new 
energy  by  the  Spirit  of  God  also  works  within  the  soul,  a  positive  righteous- 
ness establishes  itself  upon  the  neck  of  sin  and  in  the  end  will  overcome 
and  destroy  it. 

Of  course  the  death  principle  for  the  believer  in  this  law  of  sacrifice  or 
expiation  above  referred  to  is  itself  also  a  deep  paradox,  because  it  is  a 
unique  form  of  death,  a  death  which  in  Christ's  case  was  a  judgment-death, 
but  which  in  the  disciple's  case  is  a  regenerating  death.  This  issues  not  in 
self-destruction  but  in  self-recovery  through  the  spiritual  resurrection  which 
accompanies  it.     Death  thus  becomes  a  process  not  of  burial  in  order  to 


THE  CROSS  THE   WORLD'S  EVANGEL.  233 

decay,  but  of  planting  in  order  to  harvest.  We  bury  dead  refuse;  we  plant 
living  germs;  that  which  perishes  is  the  mere  husk,  the  outside  wrappings; 
this  sets  free  the  springing  principle  of  higher,  even  divine  life.  Through 
the  transformation  in  this  law  of  sacrifice,  we  realize  a  productiveness  alto- 
gether transcending  any  processes  of  mere  self-preservation.  It  is  at  this 
point  that  a  new  spontaneity  of  righteousness  is  begotten  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  so  that  in  the  loyalty  of  its  Redeemer,  the  ransomed  and  renewed  soul 
avows  new  fealty  to  God  as  expressed  in  the  psalm,  "Lo,  I  come  to  do  Thy 
will,  O  God".  A  dying  which  thus  results  is  not  a  waste,  but  is  the  highest 
economic  recuperative  force  in  the  moral  universe.  A  soul  thus  recovered, 
has  a  safeguard  also  against  a  second  fall  which  the  first  Adam  never  knew. 
Moreover,  through  the  operation  of  this  law  issues  the  potency  of  the  new 
heavens  and  new  earth  having  for  their  capital  the  new  Jerusalem. 

Relation  of  the  Atonement  to  World-Evangelization.  But  we  cannot  leave 
this  law  of  sacrifice  without  accentuating  its  intended  application,  as  Christ 
Himself  did  to  the  matter  of  world-evangelization.  Our  Lord  having  uttered 
His  homily  concerning  the  secondary  expression  of  His  principle  of  sacrifice 
thus  soliloquizes  :  "  Now  is  My  soul  troubled  and  what  shall  I  say  ?  Father, 
save  me  from  this  hour.?  "  This  would  have  been  the  natural  thing  to  ask 
but  for  the  problem  of  sin.  The  sin  problem,  however,  cannot  be  ignored. 
Accordingly,  Jesus  instantly  adds,  "  But  for  this  cause  came  I  unto  this 
hour".  This  was  the  distinctive  goal  for  which  "  the  Word  became  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us ".  Then  in  a  passion  of  absolute  loyalty  to  the  divine 
purpose,  Jesus  throws  Himself  into  the  prayer,  "  Father,  glorify  Thy 
name".  It  was  at  that  moment  that  "  there  came  a  voice  out  of  heaven, 
saying,  '  I  have  both  glorified  it,  and  will  glorify  it  again  '  ".  This  meant  not 
merely  that  the  Father  would  glorify  Himself  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
to  follow^  but  it  implied  also,  as  we  think,  that  in  the  new  epoch  of  Gentile 
evangelization  into  which  Christ's  successors  would  be  brought,  the  divine 
name  would  be  further  glorified  through  them.  And  as  if  to  put  beyond  all 
doubt  what  was  intended  by  this  miraculous  utterance,  Jesus  made  the 
decisive  comment,  "  This  voice  hath  not  come  for  My  sake,  but  for  your 
sakes";  and  if  for  their  sakes,  the  Saviour  implied  that  God  the  Father  was 
putting  upon  them  the  work  of  continuing  Christ's  expression  of  vicarious 
love  for  a  lost  world. 

Once  then,  of  the  three  times  in  which  the  audible  voice  came  forth  from 
the  Father  right  out  of  heaven,  it  came  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  were  to 
build  upon  the  foundation  of  Christ  in  the  work  of  evangelizing  the  nations. 
Precisely  the  same  emphasis  which  was  afforded  to  Jesus  Himself  at  the 
Jordan,  and  to  the  gospel  message  on  the  transfiguration  mount  was  now 
given  to  the  principle  of  their  missionary  task.  This  voice  was  the  Father's 
accent  upon  that  task.  Moreover,  it  was  to  be  conceived  by  those  who 
apprehend  it  as  perpetually  reiterating  itself  till  the  end  of  the  dispensation. 

The  Father's  Accent.  We  justly  magnify  the  great  commission  of  the 
Son,  uttered  just  prior  to  His  ascension.  We  habitually  dwell  upon  the 
commission  of  the  Holy  Spirit  given  at  Pentecost— upon  the  import  of  that 


234  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

day  with  the  descending  breath,  the  heavenly  fire  and  the  supernatural 
tongues,  empowering  the  church  for  high  execution,  and  we  do  well.  But 
there  is  a  commission  of  the  Father — the  first  person  of  the  Holy  Trinity, 
also — uttered  direct  from  heaven  on  the  significant  day  we  are  now  contem- 
plating, which  comes  to  us  with  the  emphasis  of  the  first  person  of  the 
Godhead.  This  commission  was  intended,  not  for  Christ,  but  for  the 
disciples  who  stood  about  Him,  and  for  their  successors,  and  for  theirs,  and 
for  theirs,  repeating  itself  right  on  through  each  generation  up  to  our  own  ; 
and  through  us  to  be  passed  on  to  all  our  successors  until  the  work  shall  be 
finished  and  the  kingdom  shall  have  fully  come.  And  yet  multitudes  among 
us  in  the  modern  church  seem  never  to  have  heard  this  all-commanding 
voice  at  all.  Some  who  heard  those  august  tones  said  that  "  it  thundered  ". 
Sometimes  in  the  summer  time  when  the  conditions  have  favored,  we  have 
been  in  the  midst  of  an  electric  storm,  the  concussions  of  which  became 
continuous.  A  peal  breaking  from  one  part  of  the  heavens  rolled  into 
another  arising  from  a  different  quarter,  and  that  melted  into  one  imme- 
diately above  our  heads,  which  again  reverberated  to  all  the  surrounding 
points  of  the  compass ;  this  woke  yet  other  sounds,  until  really  for  hours 
there  was  one  long  roll  like  the  reveille  of  the  eternities.  So  it  seems  to  us 
in  the  thought  of  this  climacteric  teaching  of  the  third  day  of  our  Lord's 
passion,  God  would  be  understood  as  sounding  through  the  heavens  above 
our  heads  a  long  continuous  thunder  call  summoning  His  followers  of  all 
times  and  places  to  universal  cooperation  with  His  glorified  Son  in  the  work 
of  the  world's  salvation.  That  voice  has  never  ceased  to  sound  since  our  ♦,. 
Lord  passed  it  on  to  His  church. 

Bearing  of  this  on  Missions.  The  work  involved  in  the  sublime  com-  f 
mission  growing  out  of  the  law  of  sacrifice  in  a  few  brief  sentences  is  this. 
To  give  to  the  heathen  world  the  benefit  of  the  anticipatory  judgment  set  up 
in  the  cross  of  Christ  to  prepare  them  for  the  final  judgment  of  the  last  day. 
It  was  for  this  that  the  great  judgment-death  on  Calvary  was  enacted  and 
promulgated, — that  every  last  moral  issue  that  can  arise  in  the  last  assize, 
might  be  met  and  settled  in  advance.  Without  the  knowledge  of  that 
judgment  enacted  on  the  cross  the  heathen  are  shut  up  to  that  poor  blurred 
judgment  which  exists  in  their  own  fallen  natural  consciences.  That  indeed 
God  will  not  despise,  "  in  the  day  when  He  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men 
by  Jesus  Christ ".  But  this  is  utterly  inadequate ;  it  lacks  dynamic.  It 
affords  no  certainty  of  salvation  to  the  heathen  who  universally  live  under 
the  torture  of  their  guilty  and  superstitious  fears ;  it  has  little  educative  and 
transforming  power.  At  the  best  it  can  only  afford  a  low  form  of  embryonic 
salvation,  infantile  in  character.  It  certainly  can  furnish  no  such  full  and 
glorious  salvation  as  God  has  prepared  for  everybody  in  Christ's  cross. 
It  is  the  denial  of  the  benefit  of  this  anticipatory  judgment  in  Christ's  cross 
through  long  ages  to  the  heathen  world  that  is  their  spiritual  poverty  and 
the  church's  crime.  Evangelical  Christians — a  few  of  them — have  entered 
upon  work  for  the  heathen  to  the  degree  they  have,  because  to  some  extent 
they  perceive  the  force  and  value  of  Christ's  judgment-death  as  related  to 


THE  CROSS  THE    WOKLirs  El'ANGEL.  235 

human  destiny.  Like  I'aul,  they  know  that  that  death  has  potentially 
changed  the  moral  status,  the  divine  possibilities  in  grace  for  all  mankind. 
Hence  they  are  zealous  to  render  actual  the  potential  in  the  real  experience 
of  the  heathen.  It  is  this  that  creates  the  evangelical  motive  for  missions. 
This  it  is  also  which  raises  the  obligation  to  evangelize  the  heathen  to  an 
entirely  distinctive  plane.  It  is  the  obligation  to  give  bein}:^  to  the  church 
among  peoples  to  whom  as  yet  it  is  impossible. 

To  us,  therefore,  who  through  Christ  have  received  mercy,  God  looks  to 
extend  that  mercy  to  every  groping  pagan  mind.  To  the  degree  that  we 
also  in  the  performance  of  that  task  die  with  Him  and  rise  again  to  newness 
of  life  and  service  on  the  whole  world-wide  field,  will  the  church  become 
possessed  with  power  to  transform  the  earth. 


*  THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS. 

(St.  John  12  :  32.) 
by   rea^.   a.  very   a.    sha-w, 

Pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Brookline,  Mass. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  three  possible  ways  of  reading  the  Bible : 
to  read  into  it  what  we  wish  it  to  mean,  to  read  out  of  it  what  we  do  not 
wish  it  to  mean,  or  to  let  it  say  what  it  evidently  does  mean.  No  doubt  we 
have  found  it  much  easier  to  read  the  Bible  in  either  or  both  the  former 
ways  than  in  the  third.  It  is  especially  hard  for  us  to  rid  our  minds  of 
prepossessions  in  the  subject  now  before  us.  To  the  great  multitude  of 
devout  believers,  this  chapter  is  the  watershed  of  John's  Gospel,  as  the 
thought  of  the  32nd  verse  is  the  watershed  of  human  history.  In  the  minds  of 
many,  however,  possibly  of  some  here  today,  an  exception  will  be  taken  to 
using  the  words  of  the  subject  assigned  to  me  as  an  interpretation  of  the  text 
before  us.  It  will  be  objected  by  some  that  Jesus  did  not  refer  to  His  death 
at  all  but  to  His  exaltation,  John's  interpretation  being  more  or  less  of  an 
impertinence.  Others,  while  admitting  that  Jesus  here  refers  to  His  death, 
would  hold  that  He  in  no  sense  thinks  of  it  as  being  the  power  of  attraction. 
His  death  was  a  necessary  incident  to  His  heavenly  exaltation,  but  it  is  the 
exaltation  that  attracts.  So,  for  the  present,  let  us  lay  aside  the  subject  as 
stated,  and,  so  far  as  possible  dispossessing  our  minds  of  bias  of  all  kinds 
except  a  bias  toward  the  truth,  let  us  try  to  discover  our  Lord's  meaning  in 
these  words:  "And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Myself".  On  the  face  of  these  words  is  our  Lord's  evident  desire  to 
draw  all  men  to  Himself.  This  will  take  place  He  declares  if  He  "  be  lifted 
up  from  the  earth  ". 

John  interprets  these  words  as  follows  :  "  Now  this  He  said  signifying 
by  what  manner  of  death  He  should  die  ",  an  interpretation  that  in  many 
quarters  is  treated  with  scant  courtesy.  It  is  difficult  for  the  ordinary  reader 
to  understand  why  John  may  not  be  as  well  qualified  to  interpret  the  words 
of  Christ  correctly  as  any  one  in  a  later  age.  But  without  entering  into  this 
controversy,  let  us  see  if  there  is  any  light  we  may  discover  for  ourselves. 

Twice  before,  as  recorded  by  John,  Jesus  used  this  same  expression 
concerning  Himself,  with  the  omission  in  each  case  of  the  words  "  from  "  or 
"out  of  the  earth".  To  Nicodemus  (3:  14)  He  said:  "And  as  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be 
lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  may  have  eternal  life  ".  In  John 
8  :  28  He  said  to  the  unbelieving  and  hostile  Jews  :  "  When  ye  have  lifted 
up  the  Son  of  Man,  then  shall  ye  know  that  I  am  He  ". 


'  Delivered  at  the  Fifth  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  February  lo,  1904. 

236 


THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OE  THE  CROSS.  237 

The  word  hupsoo'xs  used  literally  of  place  and  means  "to  lift  up",  "to 
lift  up  on  high  ",  and  so  comes  to  mean  "  to  exalt ",  "  to  raise  to  eminence". 
From  the  reference  in  the  first  quotation  to  the  pole  on  which  the  brazen 
serpent  was  hung,  from  the  fact  that  the  unbelieving  Jews  did  lift  up  Jesus 
upon  the  Cross,  and  thus  fulfil  literally  the  prophecy  of  the  second  reference, 
and  remembering  that  the  literal  meaning  of  the  word  refers  to  place,  it  ought 
not  to  be  considered  a  sign  of  unwarranted  bias  to  accept  at  its  face  value 
John's  interpretation  of  the  third  use  of  the  expression.  That  the  words 
"from"  or  "out  of  the  earth  "  would  totally  change  the  significance  of  the 
word,  making  it  refer  only  to  the  heavenly  exaltation,  would  seem  unwar- 
ranted, unless  the  whole  tenor  of  the  passage  positively  demanded  it.  That 
it  may  give  to  the  passage  a  double  significance  so  that  it  includes  the  death 
on  the  Cross  and  the  exaltation  to  the  Father's  right  hand  is  quite  open  to 
belief. 

To  understand  this  verse  clearly,  however,  we  must  take  our  stand  with 
Jesus  and,  if  possible,  face  the  situation  from  His  point  of  view.  The  great 
confession  had  been  made ;  and  immediately  after  this  Jesus  had  told  the 
disciples  that  He  must  go  up  to  Jerusalem  to  suffer  many  things  of  the 
Chief  Priests,  the  Elders  and  the  Scribes,  and  be  put  to  death,  and  the 
third  day  rise  again.  Three  times  over  with  solemn  emphasis  is  this 
repeated.  When  the  natural  supposition  would  be  that  He  would  stay  away 
from  Jerusalem  where  His  claims  were  derided  or  ignored  and  remain  in 
Galilee  among  friends.  He  steadfastly  set  His  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem.  At 
this  time  there  was  no  hostility  that  He  could  not,  if  He  wished,  have 
easily  escaped.  But  He  insists  that  He  has  a  mission  to  fulfil.  He 
evidently  sees  in  the  shame  and  death  the  purpose  for  which  He  came. 
He  entered  Jerusalem  by  His  own  deliberate  choice  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
draw  the  attention  of  the  multitudes  to  His  Messianic  claims.  He  receives 
with  apparent  satisfaction  the  plaudits  of  the  multitudes  and  the  hosannas 
of  the  children. 

And  now  some  Greeks,  evidently  proselytes,  though  of  pagan  birth, 
had  requested  to  be  introduced  to  Him.  At  their  request  we  hear  Him 
say,  "The  hour  is  come  that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified".  Fre- 
quently during  His  ministry  He  had  said  (or  it  had  been  said  of  Him) 
"  Mine  hour  is  not  yet  come  ".  Now  He  sees  that  hour  at  hand.  It  is  an 
hour  when  He  is  to  be  glorified ;  yet  it  is  an  hour  so  filled  with  darkness 
and  horror  that  we  hear  Him  saying,  "  Now  is  my  soul  troubled  and  what 
shall  I  say  ".  "  Father  save  me  from  this  hour  ".  Light  is  given  us  here 
from  the  parable  of  the  wheat.  "  Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the 
ground  and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone,  but  if  it  die,  it  beareth  much 
fruit ".  The  very  reason  of  the  existence  of  the  wheat  is  that  it  may  die  and 
in  dying  reproduce  itself.  Its  life  is  of  value  only  as  it  dies,  and  is  to  be 
interpreted  only  through  its  death.  The  hour  then  is  the  hour  of  Glory, 
but  of  a  Glory  that  is  inseparable  from  shame  and  death  and  the  horror  of 
great  darkness  more  bitter  than  death.  In  the  request  of  the  Greeks,  He 
sees  the  waving  grain  ripe  for  the  harvest,  but  He  sees  that  before  the 


238  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

harvest,  if  He  would  live  and  give  enduring  life  to  others  He  must  first 
apply  to  Himself  the  law  of  the  wheat  and  die.  His  first  vision  is  that  of 
Glory.  Then  the  picture  dissolves  into  a  picture  of  the  blackness  of  death 
incomparably  terrible,  and  His  soul  shrinks  for  a  moment,  but  presently  the 
vision  changes  to  that  of  a  redeemed  world,  and  in  the  center  of  it  is  the 
Cross  reflecting  the  halo  of  eternal  glory  which  it  creates. 

One  other  point  gives  further  light.  If  the  Cross  is  to  be  His  triumph, 
then  it  must  be  the  final  defeat  of  him,  who  through  it,  aimed  his  last  and 
deadliest  blow  at  the  sacred  head.  "The  prince  of  this  world"  shall  be 
overcome  and  cast  out  from  the  place  of  power  he  has  usurped  over  the 
lives  of  men.  The  blow  aimed  at  the  head  of  the  Son  of  Man  will  rebound 
upon  his  own  head  to  his  final  and  complete  undoing.  Like  the  serpent 
that  so  firmly  fastens  its  fangs  in  its  victim  that  it  cannot  withdraw  them 
till  all  their  venom  is  exhausted,  and  its  victim  is  not  only  too  strong  to  be 
overcome,  but  rather  crushes  the  serpent's  head ;  so  Satan  will  exhaust  his 
power  to  hurt,  and,  unable  to  overthrow  the  Son  of  Man,  will  be  himself 
defeated  and  dethroned.  "And  /,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
Me  ".  And  I,  victor  just  where  I  will  be  thought  to  be  vanquished  ;  I  lifted 
up  upon  the  Cross  as  upon  a  throne  of  tiiumph,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
Myself.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  exclude  the  Resurrection  and  Ascen- 
sion. They  are  integral  parts  of  the  one  transaction  without  which  the 
death  would  be  an  ignominious  defeat.  The  essential  point  here,  however, 
is  that  Christ  speaks  of  His  death  not  as  a  painful  incident  in  the  course  of 
His  high  calling,  but  as  the  very  fulfiUing  of  His  mission  ;  not  as  a  shameful 
trial  to  be  undergone  before  He  can  attain  His  Glory  and  win  men  to  Him- 
self, but  as  the  means  of  His  glorification,  reflecting  the  Glory  it  accom- 
plishes, and  itself  drawing  men  to  Himself. 

If  now  it  has  become  plain  that  John  has  interpreted  Christ  correctly 
in  this  verse,  we  may  go  on  to  discover  what  are  the  essential  elements  in 
this  lifting  up  that  constitute  it  so  great  a  power  over  men. 

Without  going  at  length  into  the  apostolic  interpretation  of  Christ's 
death,  which  would  be  beside  our  purpose,  let  us  simply  note  in  passing, 
that  in  Paul  and  Peter  and  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  with  such 
variations  as  differences  in  writer  and  purpose  and  destination  would  justify, 
we  have  a  unanimous  interpretation  of  Christ's  death  as  a  vicarious  sacri- 
fice, related  to  God's  love,  but  also  made  necessary  on  account  of  sin  and 
itself  the  condition  of  man's  forgiveness.  They  declare  that  Christ  delib- 
erately laid  down  His  life.  That  this  course  was  necessary.  That  its  need 
lay  in  man's  sin.  Paul  differs  from  the  others  in  carrying  the  question  one 
step  further  back  in  its  logical  course  and  relating  it  to  God's  righteousness, 
which  is  that  attiibute  in  God  which  takes  cognizance  of  sin.  "That  He 
might  be  just  and  the  justifier". 

It  has  been  claimed  that  in  John  there  is  an  entirely  different  concep- 
tion. That  here  we  have  Redemption  through  Revelation,  not  Revelation 
through  Redemption.  It  is  true,  as  Dr.  Geo.  B.  Stevens  expresses  it,  "  That 
John  dwells  less  than  most  of  the  New  Testament  writers  upon  the   legal 


THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS.  239 

aspects  of  the  divine  nature,  but  there  are  not  wanting  evidences  that  the  con- 
ception of  the  divine  love  which  underlies  all  his  religious  ideas  includes  the 
idea  of  righteousness,  that  self-respecting  attribute  of  God  which  occasions 
His  holy  displeasure  at  sin,  and  requires  it  to  be  expressed  and  vindicated 
while  sin  is  forgiven  ".  When  John  speaks  of  the  Lamb  of  God,  he  is  speak- 
ing of  a  sacrificial  lamb.  He  speaks  of  Christ  as  the  "  propitiation  for  our 
sins  ".  True,  he  does  not  enter  into  controversy  over  this  point.  He  speaks 
as  though  this  were  commonly  understood  and  accepted  as  fundamental. 
In  the  Gospel  he  is  less  concerned  with  the  method  by  which  salvation  comes 
than  by  its  actual  realization.  But  we  are  assured  that  this  apostolic  inter- 
pretation was  largely  dogmatic,  reflecting  the  mental  characteristics  and 
training  of  the  Apostles  and  the  exigencies  of  the  times.  It  was,  we  are 
told,  an  apologetic  designed  to  meet  the  reproach  of  the  Jew,  to  whom  the 
Cross  was  a  stumbling  block,  and  of  the  Greek,  to  whom  it  was  foolishness, 
rather  than  a  fair  interpretation  of  the  teaching  of  their  Lord. 

The  question  resolves  itself  into  this :  Did  Paul  entirely  misunder- 
stand, and  so  misrepresent,  the  meaning  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  and  did  the 
other  Apostles  "  paulinize  ",  or  have  they  all  alike  sat  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  ? 
We  know  what  they  said,  "  That  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  and  our 
hands  have  handled  declare  we  unto  you  ".  "  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of 
all  that  which  I  also  received".  "And  we  are  witnesses  of  these  things". 
It  seems  to  the  plain  man  quite  impossible  to  walk  with  Jesus  as 
His  steps  are  traced  by  the  Synoptists,  from  His  baptism  where 
He  accepts  His  mission,  into  the  wilderness  where  He  is  tempted  to 
exchange  it  for  an  easier  and  less  worthy  one,  or  at  least  to  use  unspiritual 
means  to  fulfil  it ;  to  hear  His  prophecy  of  the  bridegroom  being  suddenly 
snatched  away  in  the  midst  of  the  festivities  (Mt.  9:14)  to  catch  His  hint 
in  reference  to  Jonah;  and  then  to  follow  Him,  as  we  have  already  done, 
from  Caisarea  Philippi  to  Jerusalem  to  hear  Him  say  that  He  gave  His  life 
a  ransom  for  many ;  to  go  with  Him  to  the  upper  room,  where  in  memo 
rable  words  He  relates  His  death  to  the  founding  of  the  new  covenant 
sealed  by  His  sacrificial  blood ;  to  watch  with  Him  in  Gethsemane  and  to 
stand  beneath  His  Cross  until  we  hear  Him  cry,  "  It  is  finished  ", — I  say  it 
is  quite  impossible  for  the  plain  man  thus  to  follow  Him  through  His  life 
and  be  content  with  any  interpretation  of  that  death  short  of  the  Apostolic. 

In  John's  Gospel  we  find  Christ  represented,  as  in  the  synoptics,  as 
early  in  His  ministry  revealing  His  consciousness  that  His  mission  on  earth 
was  to  die  for  men.  To  the  Jews  in  the  temple  He  said  (2:19):"  Destroy 
this  temple  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  again  ".  And  I  have  no  dispo- 
sition to  sneer  at  John  when  he  interprets  these  words  as  referring  to 
Christ's  death.  To  Nicodemus  He  said  (3  :  14) :  "  As  Moses  lifted  up  the 
serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up  ".  After 
the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand,  we  have  in  chapter  6  His  long  discussion 
concerning  His  flesh  and  blood,  where  His  sacrificial  death  is  the  very  heart 
of  the  passage.  In  8  :  28  we  read :  "  When  ye  have  lifted  up  the  Son  of 
Man,  then  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  He  ".     In  10:  1 1,  17.  18,  He  is  "the  good 


240  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

shepherd  who  giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep  ".  John  strongly  emphasizes  the 
malignity  of  the  Jews  which  caused  Christ's  death.*  Yet  at  the  same  time 
he  records  Christ's  repeated  words :  "  No  man  taketh  it  from  Me ;  I  lay  it 
down  of  Myself ;  I  have  authority  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  authority  to 
take  it  again  ". 

A  common  method  of  discrediting  the  strength  of  Jesus'  testimony  to 
Himself  is  to  take  each  separate  passage  often  apart  from  its  connection, 
and  reducing  it  to  its  smallest  conceivable  meaning,  to  declare  "  This  is  all 
that  Jesus  meant  ".  "  But,"  as  Stalker  puts  it,  "it  is  not  often  the  natural 
meaning,  and  one  gets  tired  of  this  perpetual  shallowing  of  everything  Jesus 
said".t  What  reason  is  there  for  thinking  that  the  most  superficial  sense 
of  profound  words  is  most  nearly  true  ?  Why  should  we  assign  to  the  words 
only  that  possible  meaning  that  divests  them  of  all  their  original  associa- 
tions ?  There  may  be  single  passages  where  the  meaning  is  so  nicely  bal- 
anced, that  a  slight  bias  of  mind  will  turn  the  scales.  But  when  we  see  the 
scales  tipped  in  a  single  direction  in  every  case,  however  weighty  the  words 
may  be  on  the  other  side,  and  this  always  in  the  direction  of  divesting  those 
words  of  all  their  deepest  meaning,  we  may  be  pardoned  for  a  suspicion  that 
the  scales  are  loaded. 

But  now  leaving  the  general  significance  of  our  Lord's  death,  let  us  ask 
what  it  is  in  particular  that  constitutes  the  Cross  of  Christ  so  mighty  a  power 
over  men  ?  In  the  first  place  I  would  say,  the  Cross  is  the  supreme  revela- 
tion of  God's  love  to  men.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  Only 
Begotten  Son  "  is  our  Lord's  explanation  of  the  motive  prompting  the  sacri- 
fice. Men  spare  those  they  love;  they  seek  to  shield  them  from  harm. 
Fathers  and  mothers  seek  to  shield  their  children  from  the  chilly  winds  and 
biting  frosts  of  life.  God  "spared  not"  His  Son,  but  freely  gave  Him, 
because  He  loved  the  world.  It  is  an  exhibition  of  Christ's  love.  Volun- 
tarily and  gladly  He  laid  down  His  life  for  the  sheep.  Because  He  had  a 
mind  of  love  toward  men,  "  He  did  not  insist  on  retaining  His  equality 
with  God  ",  but  freely  humbled  Himself  even  to  the  death  of  the  Cross. 
Though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  the  sake  of  men  whom  He  loved  better  than 
His  riches,  He  beggared  Himself,  pouring  out  His  soul  unto  death.  Here 
in  the  Cross  we  see  the  aching  heart  of  God  laid  bare.  Here  we  see  the 
very  throbbing  of  His  love. 

The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  is  a  graphic  and  beautiful  picture  of 
God's  love  painted  in  colors  drawn  from  human  life.  The  Cross  is  the  final 
proof  of  God's  love  set  forth  in  overwhelming  reality.  No  mere  picture  of 
love,  even  when  painted  by  the  Master  Artist  Himself  can  ever  satisfy  the 
heart  of  man.  But  for  the  man  who  has  the  love  proven  to  him  by  the 
Cross,  the  picture  is  of  inestimable  value  "Lest  we  forget".  We  do  not 
know  love  in  its  length  and  breadth  and  height  and  depth  until  we  see  it 
making  cost  to  itself.  For  this  reason  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  cannot  be 
taken  as  an  epitome  of  the  Gospel,  for  although  it  beautifully  portrays  the 


*(5:  i8;  7:  19-30;  8:  37-40;  10:  31,  32;  11:  50.) 
t  The  Christology  of  Jesus,  p.  121. 


THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS.  241 

freeness  and  fulness  of  God's  love,  it  is  absolutely  silent  as  to  its  depth  and 
cost.  No  words  however  fair  and  strong  could  ever  tell  the  cost  to  God  of 
expressing  His  redeeming  love.  And  let  us  remember  that  as  Dr.  Denny 
has  so  well  said  :  "  If  there  is  no  atonement  in  it,  neither  is  there  any  Christ 
in  it".  If  that  parable  is  an  epitome  of  the  Gospel,  then  as  Harnack  has 
aftirmed,  "  Christ  has  no  place  in  the  Gospel  He  proclaims  ".  But  we  know 
that  this  parable  is  a  beautiful  picture  whose  interpretation  is  the  Cross. 
The  only  light  in  which  it  can  be  properly  seen  is  the  light  that  radiates 
from  the  Cross.     The  Cross  alone  gives  it  proper  perspective. 

It  was  this  amazing  love  that  mastered  the  apostles  and  inspired  them. 
They  never  felt  that  they  could  take  salvation  for  granted.  To  them  salva- 
tion was  a  miracle  of  miracles,  the  wonder  of  which  never  ceased.  A  gospel 
which  could  be  taken  for  granted  would  be  for  them  no  gospel.  But  here 
was  the  infinite  and  holy  God  sending  His  only-begotten  Son  into  the  world 
to  save  them.  Here  was  their  loved  Master,  Whom  now  they  see  to  have 
been  from  eternity,  the  Creator  of  all  things,  sharing  their  earthly  lot,  and 
freely  laying  dow-n  His  life  for  them.  This  amazing  love  of  their  living 
Lord  they  cannot  ever  hope  fully  to  comprehend.  It  overpowers  them  and 
binds  them  to  Him  by  ties  stronger  than  death. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  will  remember  the  story  of  the  two  street  arabs 
Rag  and  Dan,  whom  Mrs.  Mason  received  into  her  class  in  the  Mission 
Sunday  school.  They  were  well  versed  in  the  life  and  language  of  the 
slums,  but  knew  as  little  as  a  Hottentot  about  the  Bible  and  the  love  of 
God.  One  Sunday  afternoon  the  lesson  was  on  the  sufferings  of  Jesus  for 
the  sins  of  men.  Very  tenderly  Mrs.  Mason  told  them  of  His  patience 
under  persecution,  and  His  quiet  yielding  of  Himself  to  the  power  of  His 
enemies,  who  were  plotting  to  kill  Him.  "  Don't  believe  it,"  came  sud- 
denly from  Rag.  A  painful  and  yet  delicious  thrill  shot  through  the 
class.  But  the  teacher  went  over  the  story  again,  patiently  and  tenderly, 
only  to  meet  another  even  more  uncompromising  denial.  "  Now  look-a- 
here!  Me  'n'  Dan  don't  believe  no  such  thing  as  that.  It's  a  fake, 
that's  wot  it  is.  'Tain't  accordin'  to  reason  for  anybody  to  act  that  way. 
You  go  down  on  Fourth  street,  and  you  hit  a  feller  over  the  head,  and 
he'll  give  you  one  back,  he  will  for  sure,  if  he's  big  enough.  But  you 
say  this  Man  you're  talkin'  about  could  do  anything  He  wanted  to  ;  and 
yet  He  let  them  galoots  around  Him  get  Him  into  a  corner,  and  do  Him 
up  !  Well,  I  guess  not !  "  and  the  worldly  wise  young  cynic  smiled  a  know- 
ing smile — the  smile  of  one  who  isn't  taken  in  by  children's  stories;  while 
his  pal  nodded  his  head  in  acquiescence,  and  echoed,  "  Not  much  1  " 

Mrs.  Mason  was  driven  back  as  never  before  to  the  foundations  of  her 
faith  ;  and  for  the  next  few  months  her  heart  went  into  her  work  and  out  to 
her  boys,  her  two  pagans  especially,  as  never  before,  until  one  blessed  day, 
as  the  story  goes.  Rag  said,  looking  her  steadily  in  the  eye : 

"  Is  this  all  straight,  teacher.?  Are  you  sure  that  you  ain't  givin'  us  no 
bluff.?" 

And  looking  him  as  steadily  in  the  face  she  answered,  in  his  own  dialect : 


242  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

"  Yes,  Rag,  I'm  sure.     It's  no  bluff,  it's  straight ". 

For  a  moment  the  boy  sat  in  thoughtlul  silence.     Then  he  said : 

"  Wot  d'you  think  of  it,  Dan  ?  " 

And  for  once  little  Dan  spoke  out  for  himself,  without  waiting  for  his 
cue  from  his  leader: 

"  I  tell  you.  Rag,  it's  straight  goods,  just  as  she  says.  She's  never  went 
back  on  us  yet,  an'  you  bet  she  ain't  going  back  on  us  now.     I  believe  it". 

And  Rag  said  slowly,  with  the  look  of  one  who  sees  the  dawning  of 
light: 

"  Yes,  I  guess  it  must  be  straight.  Eut,  say,  if  He  done  all  that  for  a 
fellow,  how  a  fellow  ought  to  love  Him  !  " 

And  the  woman  who  had  helped  him,  and  whom  he  had  no  less  helped, 
placed  her  hand  on  his,  and  said  through  her  falling  tears: 

"  Yes,  Rag ;  and  O,  I  do  so  want  you  to  love  Him  !  " 

And,  still  thoughtfully,  the  lad  replied : 

"  I  don't  see  how  I'm  goin'  to  help  it ". 

The  loyal  Dan  echoed,  "  Neither  do  I  ". 

For  many,  this  may  be  all  that  is  needed  in  explanation  of  the  Cross  to 
constitute  it  the  mighty  attracting  and  regulalirg  power  in  their  lives.  For 
most  people,  however,  there  must  be  further  explanation. 

Love,  to  be  convincing  and  commanding,  must  be  no  mere  display 
irrelevant  to  our  need ;  it  must  relate  itself  to  our  peculiar  circumstances. 
If  I  am  standing  by  the  rapids  of  Niagara,  above  the  falls,  and  my  friend 
stands  by  me  protesting  his  love,  and  to  prove  it  plunges  into  the  rapids 
and  is  swept  over  the  falls  to  his  death,  I  am  impressed  only  with  the  pity 
and  the  folly  of  it.  But,  if  I  am  in  the  rapids  struggling  for  my  life,  my 
strength  almost  gone,  and  just  at  the  awful  brink,  and  my  friend  plunges  in, 
and,  at  the  cost  of  his  own  life,  rescues  me  from  death,  then  I  know  the 
meaning  and  reality  of  his  love.  It  was  a  love  that  proved  itself  by  meeting 
my  need,  by  taking  my  place  at  the  utmost  cost  to  itself. 

The  very  essence  of  the  attracting  power  of  Christ's  Cross  is  that  it 
meets  my  deepest  need.  By  it  He  takes  my  place.  "I  am  the  good 
shepherd".  He  said;  "The  good  shepherd  layeth  down  his  life  for  the 
sheep  ",  and  the  plain  man  reading  that,  has  seen  it  to  mean  that  the 
shepherd  dies  to  save  the  sheep  from  dying.  And  applying  it  to  Christ  has 
seen  that  He  took  the  sinner's  place  and  rescued  Him  from  eternal  death. 
The  sinner  was  not  only  under  the  power  and  the  stain  of  sin,  but  under  its 
penalty  and  doom.  Christ,  though  without  the  stain  of  sin,  yielded  Himself 
to  its  power  and  bore  its  doom,  that  the  sinner  might  escape.  "  He  died 
for  me  "  was  Paul's  constant  wonder  and  joy.  "  The  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  me,  because  we  thus  judge  that  one  died  for  all".  This  reveals 
the  inspiration  of  His  life  of  marvelous  devotion  and  sacrifice. 

You  recall  Bunyon's  pilgrim  as  he  climbed  the  hill  bounded  on  either 
side  by  the  walls  of  salvation,  weighed  down  with  the  heavy  burden  on  his 
back.  "  Upon  that  place  stood  a  Cross,  and  a  little  below  in  a  hollow  a 
sepulchre.     So  I  saw  in  my  dream,  that  just  as  Christian  came  up  with  the 


THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS,  243 

Cross  his  burden  loosed  from  off  his  shoulders  and  fell  from  off  his  back, 
and  began  to  tumble,  and  so  continued  to  do  till  it  came  to  the  mouth  of 
the  sepulchre,  where  it  fell  in  and  I  saw  it  no  more.  Then  was  Christian 
glad  and  lightsome,  and  said  with  a  merry  heart,  'He  hath  given  me  rest  by 
His  sorro7i's,  and  life  by  His  death  /'  " 

The  reason  why  this  exhibition  of  God's  love,  God  taking  upon  Himself 
our  ill  desert,  and  at  infinite  cost  to  Himself  making  it  possible  to  forgive 
us  freely,  is  so  marvelous  an  attracting  power  is  that  it  starts  at  the  right 
place  by  begetting  repentance  in  the  human  heart.  When  we  are  brought  to 
see,  in  the  crucifixion  of  the  Holy  One,  what  awful  work  sin  can  do,  that 
He  died  not  for  His  sin  but  for  ours  ;  if  that  does  not  break  the  heart  and 
stir  the  conscience  to  commanding  action  and  bring  the  will  into  subjection, 
nothing  can.  This  moral  revolution  there  must  be  in  order  to  make  the 
attraction  permanent.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  prince  of  this  world  be 
formally  judged  and  cast  out.  Not  enough  that  his  reign  over  the  hearts  of 
men  should  be  externally  and  artificially  broken.  There  must  be  generated 
in  the  hearts  of  those  who  rendered  him  allegiance  a  deep-seated  hatred  of 
his  reign,  and  a  bitter  repentance  for  allowing  him  any  place  in  the  heart, 
then  there  can  be  attraction  and  allegiance  to  the  new  Saviour  King. 

"  He  hangs  a  dead  corpse  on  the  tree, 

Who  made  the  whole  world's  life  to  spring: 
And,  as  some  outcast,  shameful  thing 
The  Lord  of  all  we  see. 

"  Darkness  falls  thick  to  shroud  the  time: 
Nature  herself  breaks  up,  and  cries: 
Even  from  the  grave  shocked  ghosts  arise, 
At  this  tremendous  crime. 

"  Speak  not :  no  human  voice  may  tell 

The  secrets  which  these  hours  enfold: 
By  treacherous  hands  to  traitors  sold, 
God  yields  Himself  to  Hell. 

"  Speak  not,  draw  close  :  through  stricken  heart 
Drink  in  the  sense  of  all  that's  here : 
The  shame,  the  cross,  the  nails,  the  spear. 
Rending  His  soul  apart. 

"  Ahl  and  far  crueller,  far,  than  they, 

(Tools  and  mere  symbols  these)  our  sin  1 

Breathe  to  thyself,  soul,  deep  within 
'  'Twas  I  that  caused  this  day  '. 

"  Speak  not :  He  speaks  not :  no  reproach 
Falls  from  those  dying  lips  on  thee  : 
No  vengeance,  muttering  ills  to  be. 
Bars  thy  devout  approach. 

"  Stricken,  unmurmuring,  dead,  divine, 

This  day  He  hangs,  as  He  hung  of  old; 
Only  the  dire'sight  cries  '  Behold  I 
Was  ever  love  like  mine  ? '  " 


244  •  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

And  this  is  the  interpretation  the  history  of  Christian  experience  puts 
upon  the  Cross. 

"  Is  He  a  Redeemer  or  a  mere  dreamer,  preaching  a  kingdom  that  can- 
not come?  "  Ask  history.  It  is  not  as  a  hero  that  the  world  has  thought 
of  Christ.  On  a  little  hill  outside  a  city  wall,  between  two  other  crosses,  a 
young  man  hung  upon  a  Cross,  all  three  dying  a  shameful  death.  A  few 
weeping  friends  were  gathered  about  the  Cross  of  the  young  man.  A  little 
later  they  bear  the  body  away  and  put  it  in  the  tomb,  and  the  stone  is  rolled 
against  the  door,  and  life  and  hope  and  joy  are  shut  in,  and  .darkness  and 
despair  reign  without.  It  is  a  mournful  dirge  we  hear  rising  from  the 
broken  hearts  of  the  few  friends  and  followers.  But  listen  !  Presently  you 
catch  another  note.  The  same  voices,  still  few  in  number,  but  how  differ- 
ent the  song  I  You  hear  it  spreading  like  a  grand  hymn  in  a  mighty  out- 
door congregation.  In  Samaria  and  in  Galilee  the  strain  is  taken  up.  It 
spreads  to  Antioch,  to  Asia  Minor.  It  leaps  the  Hellespont.  It  is  taken 
up  in  Macedonia,  in  Greece,  in  Rome.  It  becomes  the  national  anthem  of 
the  Roman  Empire,  its  echoes  reverberating  around  the  Mediterranean. 
But  such  narrow  limits  cannot  confine  this  song.  It  is  borne  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind  across  the  channel,  across  the  Atlantic,  until  America  takes  up 
the  strain.  Back  it  floats  to  Africa,  to  India,  to  China,  to  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth,  until  today  a  mighty  chorus  from  every  tribe  and  tongue 
joins  in  the  one  harmonious  song  of  triumph.  And  what  is  this  marvellous 
song  ?  None  other  than  that  which  John  heard  on  Patmos  when  he  had  a 
vision  of  a  redeemed  world  joining  with  the  heavenly  hosts.  "  Worthy  is 
the  Lamb  that  hath  been  slain  to  receive  the  power  and  riches  and  wisdom 
and  might  and  honor  and  glory  and  blessing  ". 

As  nothing  else  in  the  world's  history  has  done  it,  the  Cross  has  domi- 
nated the  minds  of  men  of  all  nationalities,  of  all  classes  and  conditions,  by 
drawing  them  into  the  fellowship  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  has  transformed  relig- 
ion from  that  dead  and  barren  thing  it  was  into  the  living  and  fruitful 
thing  we  see  it  today.  It  has  transformed  society.  It  has  produced  civili- 
zation. It  has  inspired  literature  and  art  to  their  highest  uses.  Never  are 
men  so  nearly  at  their  best  in  any  of  the  works  or  walks  of  life  as  when  the 
Cross  is  their  theme  and  inspiration.  We  must  not  ask  those  who  have 
looked  upon  the  Cross  only  from  without ,  as  one  might  look  from  without 
on  the  storied  windows  of  a  cathedral,  and  complain  at  the  dulness  and 
flatness  of  the  picture  because  he  had  not  seen  them  glorified  by  the  light 
of  heaven  streaming  through  them  ;  but  let  us  ask  those  who  have  been 
redeemed,  from  whose  minds  the  image  of  the  Redeemer  departed  not,  who 
are  sharers  in  His  joys  and  in  His  sufferings ;  ask  these,  and  their  verdict 
will  be  that  He  was  no  dreamer,  preaching  a  kingdom  that  could  not  come. 
He  is  the  world's  Redeemer,  and  because  He  is  its  Redeemer,  He  is  build- 
ing up  a  kingdom  that  shall  have  no  end. 

But  this  attracting  power  is  purely  moral  and  therefore  is  not  irresist- 
able.  "  I  will  draw  all  men  unto  Myself  ",  Christ  said,  using  a  word  that 
speaks  of  inner  constraint,  not  of  outward  compulsion.     An  Alexander,  a 


THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS.  245 

Caesar,  a  Napoleon,  or  a  Nicholas  may  dream  of  a  world-empire,  but  the 
mailed  fist  is  their  highest  conception  of  the  unifying  principal  of  their 
kingdom.  But  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  men  are  to  be  drawn  by 
sweet  persuasion,  not  "  dragged  in  "  against  their  wills.  No  outward  con- 
straint could  be  effective.  That  the  attracting  power  of  the  Cross  is  not 
irresistable  was  never  more  manifest  than  today.  The  quite  common  view 
that  the  theories  of  the  apostles  concerning  Christ's  death  were  simply 
their  adroit  efforts  to  get  over  the  difficulty  of  Christ's  death  as  a  stumbling 
block  proves  one  thing  at  least,  that  the  Cross  is  a  stumbling  block  today, 
and  any  expedient  that  will  explain  it  away  will  be  gladly  hailed. 

The  strongest  magnet  cannot  exert  its  attractive  power  through  perfect 
insulation.  And  no  one  who  attempts  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Cross  in 
these  days  as  Christ  and  His  apostles  taught  it  can  fail  to  see  that  there  is 
much  that  insulates  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  against  it.  Are  we  to  give 
up  the  preaching  of  the  Cross  and  seek  some  magic  solvent  to  apply  to  men 
that  once  more  they  may  become  susceptible  to  its  power .-'  By  no  means. 
We  must  continue  to  preach  it,  but  we  should  seek  such  a  method  of  preach- 
ing it  that  it  will  act  as  its  own  solvent  and  find  its  way  to  the  hearts  of 
men.  It  is  of  no  use  for  us  to  say  "  we  must  preach  the  old  Gospel  ",  and 
thus  excuse  ourselves  for  our  failure  to  meet  the  problems  of  our  own  day. 
We  must  preach  the  old  Gospel  in  the  language  of  our  times  so  as  to  meet 
the  problems  of  our  times.  In  order  to  that  we  must  understand  what 
these  things  are  which  especially  alienate  men  from  the  (lospel  of  the 
Cross. 

The  old  problem  of  man's  pride,  his  unwillingness  to  humble  himself 
in  the  dust,  acknowledge  his  helplessness  and  put  himself  under  so  great 
obligation  to  Christ  is  intensified  in  our  day  by  the  deification  of  humanity. 
The  Incarnation,  we  are  told,  is  no  new  thing,  but  simply  the  historic 
expression  of  the  eternal  humanity  of  God.  This  is  no  doubt  a  theory  very 
attractive  to  the  pride  of  man  and  one  that  leaves  no  room  for  an  atone- 
ment. It  is  a  theory  that  is  immensely  popular  in  these  days  when  an 
attractive  theory  is  preferable  to  stubborn  facts. 

Again,  many  men  of  our  time  are  enamored  of  a  method  of  historical 
research  which  finds  in  the  patent  circumstances  of  an  event  its  full  explan- 
ation and  forbids  applying  to  the  event  universal  significance.  If  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  aroused  the  antagonism  of  Jewish  authorities  so  that  they  sought 
and  compassed  His  death,  that  is  enough  to  explain  the  fact  and  we  must 
not  seek  ulterior  causes.  Nor  must  we  translate  that  event,  so  easily 
accounted  for,  into  an  event  of  universal  significance.  This  is  like  assert- 
ing that  we  understand  all  about  the  life  and  growth  of  a  tree  because  we 
can  explain  the  constituent  elements  of  the  soil  in  which  it  grows.  A  his- 
torical method  that  fails  to  account  for  all  the  facts  is  unhistorical  and 
unscientific.  The  true  historical  method  must  take  account  of  the  facts  of 
sin  and  redemption  and  the  triumphs  of  the  Cross  in  the  last  1900  years.  It 
must  account  for  the  Christianity  of  today.  Its  foundation  can  be  neither  the 
fog  of  mythicizing  tendencies  in  the  early  church,  nor  the  rottenness  of  con- 


246  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

scious  deception  on  the  part  of  the  apostles.  No  building  of  such  magni- 
tude could  stand  on  so  slender  a  foundation.  It  is  far  more  reasonable  to 
Recognize  all  the  facts  in  the  case  and  seek  to  conform  our  historical 
theories  to  the  facts,  than  to  eliminate  the  facts  in  the  interest  of  any  theory 
whatsoever. 

Then,  there  are  popular  theories  of  human  life  which  make  man  so 
absolutely  a  part  of  the  "  Cosmic  Process  "  as  to  lead  to  a  denial  of  the 
reality  of  sin,  as  that  word  is  understood  in  the  New  Testament.  It  makes 
the  atonement  appear,  as  Dr.  Denny  puts  it,  "like  a  rock  in  the  sky". 
To  a  far  greater  degree  than  we  are  apt  to  suppose,  the  Rubaiyat  is 
revered  above  the  Bible ;  and  even  among  many  who  have  never  heard  of 
Omar  Khayyam  and  who  profess  to  know  the  Bible,  the  Rubaiyat  expresses 
their  belief  concerning  sin. 

"  Oh  Thou  Who  didst  with  pitfall  and  with  gin 
Beset  the  Road  I  was  to  wander  in, 
Thou  wilt  not  with  Predestined  Evil  round 
Enmesh,  and  then  impute  my  Fall  to  Sin  1 

"  Oh  Thou,  Who  Man  of  baser  Earth  didst  make, 
And  ev'n  with  Paradise  devise  the  Snake: 
For  all  the  Sin  wherewith  the  Face  of  Man 

Is  blackened — Man's  forgiveness — give— and  take  I " 

But  more  than  by  anything  else  perhaps,  men  are  insulated  against  the 
preaching  of  the  "True  Cross"  by  what  might  be  called  "an  irreligious 
solicitude  for  God  ".  God  is  revealed  by  Jesus  as  the  loving  Father.  Why 
cannot  He  forgive  as  the  earthly  father  does  ?  What  justice  can  there  be 
in  His  asking  an  innocent  being  to  suffer  in  our  stead?  "An  innocent  one 
cannot  take  the  place  of  the  sinful  one  anyway  "  we  hear.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
however,  the  innocent  do  in  human  life  suffer  for  the  guilty,  and  often  much 
more  than  the  guilty.  Illustrations  are  before  our  eyes  daily  of  such  suffer- 
ing of  the  innocent  not  only  with  but  in  the  place  of  the  guilty.  The  father 
shields  the  guilty  son  and  suffers  in  his  stead.  He  rejoices  to  do  it. 
Taking  the  great  problem  by  this  small  end  we  may  work  our  way  back 
through  the  human  approach  to  a  partial  comprehension  of  it,  though  its 
majesty  and  mystery  are  unsearchable. 

And  God  does  not  take  an  unwilling  victim  unrelated  to  Himself  and 
force  him  to  take  the  sinners'  place.  It  is  God  Who  is  in  Christ,  at  infinite 
CO  it,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself.  And  why  can  He  not  forgive 
without  this  cost  as  the  earthly  father  does?  We  need  to  remember  that 
however  freely  the  earthly  father  forgives  the  wrong  against  himself,  he 
cannot  forgive  the  sin,  for  the  act  was  not  only  a  wrong  to  the  father  but  a 
sin  against  God,  and  only  One  can  forgive  sin.  God  cannot  forgive  without 
this  atonement,  just  because  the  word  Father  as  we  commonly  use  it  does 
not  fully  represent  God  to  men.  For  the  sweet  and  beautiful  teaching  of  our 
Lord  concerning  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  men  have  in  these  days  substituted 
a  doctrine  that  some  one  has  irreverently  called  "the  Papahood  of  God". 
Let  us  quote  here   from   Denny,   words  that  this  generation  sadly  need 


THE  ATTRACTING  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS.  247 

to  hear.  "  The  relations  of  father  and  child  are  undoubtedly  more  adequate 
to  the  truth  than  those  of  judge  and  criminal.  They  are  more  adequate, 
but  so  far  as  our  exparience  of  them  goes,  they  are  not  equal  to  it.  If  the 
sinner  is  not  a  criminal  before  his  judge,  neither  is  he  a  naughty  child  before 
a  parent  whose  own  weakness  or  affinity  to  evil  introduces  an  incalculable 
element  into  his  dealings  with  his  child's  fault.  *  *  *  Jt  ought  to  be 
apparent  to  every  one  that  even  the  relation  of  parent  and  child  if  it  is  to  be 
a  moral  relation,  must  be  determined  in  a  way  which  has  universal  and 
final  validity.  It  must  be  a  relation  in  which  ethically  speaking,  some 
things  are  forever  obligatory  and  some  things  forever  impossible ;  in  other 
words  it  must  be  a  relation  determined  by  law,  and  law  which  cannot 
deny  itself.  But  law  in  this  sense  is  not  legal ;  it  is  not  '  judicial '  or  '  statu- 
tory '  or  '  forensic ' ;  none  the  less  it  is  real  and  vital  and  the  whole 
moral  value  of  the  relation  depends  upon  it.  What  would  be  the  value  of  a 
forgiveness  which  did  not  recognize  in  its  eternal  truth  and  worth  that 
universal  law  in  which  the  relations  of  God  and  man  are  constituted  ?  With- 
out the  recognition  of  that  law — that  moral  order  or  constitution  in  which 
we  have  our  life  in  relation  to  God  and  each  other — righteousness  and  sin 
and  atonement  and  forgiveness  would  all  alike  be  words  without  meaning".* 
These  things  enable  us  to  see  how  grave  a  problem  we  have  to  meet. 
It  is  not  preaching  a  glad  message  to  men  who  have  never  heard  it,  and  who 
are  stretching  out  eager  hands  to  receive  the  blessing.  We  preach  and  see 
little  if  any  response.     It  is  as  the  poet  expresses  it : 

"  As  if  a  well  that  lay 
Unvisited,  till  water-weeds  had  grown 
Up  from  the  depths,  and  woven  a  thick  mass 
Over  its  surface,  could  give  back  the  sun  ! 
Or,  dug  from  ancient  battle  plain,  a  shield 
Could  be  a  mirror  to  the  stars  of  heaven  !" 

If  we  are  to  meet  these  conditions  and  overcome  them  ;  if  our  preaching 
and  teaching  are  to  form  any  part  of  those  moral  agencies  which  will  result 
in  drawing  all  men  to  Christ,  we  must  at  the  outset  avoid  such  presentation 
as  will  needlessly  add  to  the  thickness  of  the  weeds  or  rust  upon  the  minds 
of  men  that  prevent  their  response  to  the  appeal  of  the  Cross.  In  our  use  of 
terms  we  must  discriminate  between  their  Biblical  use  and  other  uses  that 
may  be  very  different.  For  instance,  to  use  a  single  illustration,  the  idea  of 
propitiation  often  needlessly  alienates  men  from  the  Cross  because  they  do 
not  understand  what  the  Bible  means  by  the  word.  "  In  the  heathen  view, 
expiation  renders  the  gods  wi  ling  to  forgive  ".  By  sacrifice  the  personal 
anger  of  the  god  is  appeased  and  his  favor  bought.  Nowhere  in  Old  or  New 
Testament  however  is  there  any  hint  that  God  has  any  feeling  or  disposition 
averse  to  forgiveness.  "  He  does  not  have  to  be  made  willing  by  expiation 
to  forgive  sins.  He  is  and  always  has  been  willing  ".  "  In  the  Biblical  view, 
expiition  enables  God  consistently  with  His  holiness  to  do  what  He  was 
never  unwilling  to  do  ".t      The  problem  is  simply  this.     How  can  the  Holy 


♦The  Atonement  and  ihe  Modern  Mind,  p.  71. 
t  Stevens'  Johannine  Theology,  p.  183. 


248  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

One  take  the  impure  one  to  His  arms  and  yet  remain  the  Holy  One  ?  That 
problem  has  been  solved.  The  Holy  meets  the  unholy  over  the  Blood  of 
the  Atonement.  There  is  death  for  evil  doing.  The  evil  desert  of  sin  is 
recogaized,  yet  there  is  mercy  for  the  repentant.  Sin  is  not  encouraged, 
innocence  is  not  confounded  with  guilt,  and  yet  the  fallen'are  lifted  up. 

It  is  interesting  and  to  many  cheering,  to  notice  that  in  England  where 
we  are  led  in  theological  thought  by  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  the  evangelicals 
are  preaching  the  atonement  in  its  fullest  saving  sense.  The  English  dele- 
gates to  the  Congregational  Council  held  in  Boston  a  few  years  ago  almost 
without  exception  emphasized  and  re-emphasized  the  full  atoning  significance 
of  Christ's  death.  As  they  declared,  they  have  had  their  Bushnellianism, 
and  safely  passed  through  it  twenty  years  ago.  A  writer  in  the  Independent 
at  that  time  said  that  he  asked  one  and  another  of  the  visiting  delegates : 
"  Do  these  men  represent  the  dominant  thought  of  your  pulpit?",  and  the 
answer  was  an  emphatic  affirmative :  "  That  is  what  our  young  men  are 
preaching"  said  Dr.  John  Brown  of  Bedford.  "We  hold  to  Christ's 
Redemptive  significance.  We  have  now  a  firmer  grasp  on  the  supernatural. 
We  have  passed  through  the  stage  which  laid  weight  on  the  moral  view. 
It  is  something  deeper  than  that.  The  foundation  rests  here.  '  He  was 
made  sin  for  us  Who  knew  no  sin '.  Compared  with  this  the  mere  ethical 
conception  is  secondary.  As  MacLaren  said :  '  Christianity  without  a 
Christ  is  a  dying  Christianity  '  ". 

To  have  moving  and  persuasive  preaching  we  must  have  a  moving  and 
persuasive  Gospel.  Let  us  take  heart,  and  hope  that  our  period  of  sentimental 
inefficiency  may  soon  be  superseded  by  a  time  of  great  power  and  refreshing 
from  the  Lord,  growing  out  of  a  re-habilitation  of  the  old  yet  ever  new 
Gospel  of  the  Cross. 

But  before  all  and  through  all,  if  we  would  effectively  preach  and  teach 
the  Gospel,  we  must  ourselves  be  living  examples  of  what  the  attracting 
power  of  the  Cross  can  do.  We  must  be  manifestly  under  the  sweet  con- 
straint of  His  love  Who  died  for  us.  We  must  apply  the  law  of  the  wheat  to 
ourselves  as  fully  as  He  applied  it  to  Himself  before  we  can  expect  our 
message  to  bear  fruit  in  the  lives  of  others.  We  must  not  only  be  willing  to 
cast  our  lives  into  the  earth  of  human  need,  but  we  must  do  it.  But  when 
we  do  show  our  understanding  of  Christ's  love  and  sacrifice  by  ourselyes 
entering  into  the  living  sacrifice  of  His  service,  holding  not  our  lives  dear 
unto  ourselves,  that  we  may  fulfil  our  ministry,  then  we  will  have  the  joy 
unspeakable  of  having  so  commended  Christ  and  His  cross  to  men  that  the 
winsomeness  of  His  love  seen  through  His  Cross  will  master  their  hearts  and 
wills,  and  will  bind  them  to  Him  by  invisible  and  unbreakable  bonds,  and  we 
will  have  hastened  the  day  when  by  the  Attracting  Power  of  the  Cross  He 
shall  have  drawn  all  men  unto  Himself. 


•  THE  COMMANDMENT  OF  GOD  AND  LIFE  EVERLASTING. 

by  rkv.  stkavart  mkans^,  d.  p)., 

Rector  of  St.  John's  Episcopal  Church,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

St.  John  12  -.4^,  50. 

For  I  have  not  spoken  of  Myself :  but  the  Father  which  sent  Me,  He 
gave  Me  a  commandment,  what  I  should  say,  and  what  I  should  speak. 

And  now  I  know  that  His  commandment  is  life  everlasting :  whatsoever 
I  speak  therefore,  even  as  the  Father  said  unto  Me,  so  I  speak. 

Revised  Version. 

For  I  spake  not  from  Myself :  but  the  Father  which  sent  Me,  He  hath 
g^ven  Me  a  commandment,  what  I  should  say  and  what  I  should  speak. 
And  I  know  that  His  commandment  is  life  eternal:  the  things  therefore, 
which  I  speak,  even  as  the  Father  hath  said  unto  Me,  so  I  speak. 

One  of  the  most  striking  things  to  the  thoughtful  student  of  human 
speech  is  the  constant  growth  and  expansion  of  any  language  which  is  the 
possession  of  a  vigorous  and  progressive  people.  The  wide  range  and 
extension  of  its  thought  is  met,  in  most  cases  at  least,  by  an  increase  in  the 
terms  of  its  expression.  The  creative  intelligence  gets  for  itself  new  words 
to  set  forth  the  new  ideas.  Yet  the  continuity  of  the  language  is  preserved 
by  giving  to  the  old  forms  a  new  meaning  or  if  not  a  new,  at  least  a  larger 
and  in  many  respects  a  different  meaning.  The  obsolete  significance  of 
words  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  every  old  literature.  When  we  enter 
upon  the  circle  of  ideas  and  the  field  of  the  new  Christian  consciousness, 
we  find  here  all  the  characteristic  features  that  are  manifest  in  all  literary 
expression.  Old  words  are  loaded  down  with  new  meaning  and  it  is  often 
more  necessary  to  understand  the  mind  of  the  writer  than  it  is  to  get  a 
definition  of  his  words  or  phrases.  This  passage  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John 
s  a  striking  illustration  of  this  fact.  The  first  word  which  meets  us  as 
significant  is  "  entola  ",  "  commandment ".  It  is  not  a  new  but  an  old  word 
and  the  common  association  is  also  very  old.  In  its  religious  significance 
it  is  notably  characteristic.  All  religions  without  exception,  with  which  the 
world  was  then  familiar,  were  at  bottom  legal  in  their  idea.  No  man  had 
any  other  conception  of  religion,  and  in  Judaism  it  was  stamped  upon  every 
phase  of  the  religious  life.  It  might  be  said  to  be  one  of  the  fundamental 
elements  of  human  consciousness  everywhere.  It  was  the  presence  of  this 
preconception,  along  with  many  other  inherited  mental  and  spiritual  atti- 
tudes, that  quickly  made  itself  an  influence  in  determining  how  Christianity 


*  Delivered  at  the  Eighth  CoDierence,  held  at  All  Saints  Memorial  Church,  May  ii,  1904. 

249 


250  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

would  be  understood  by  the  mass  of  men.  For  men  do  not  and  cannot 
divest  tnemselves  of  all  which  they  have  inherited  in  the  way  of  thought  and 
feeling,  of  temper  and  atmosphere  of  soul.  Knowing  therefore  the  accus- 
tomed associations  of  the  word  "  commandment ",  the  attentive  reader  is 
met  with  the  thought,  immediately  upon  his  reading  this  passage,  that  St. 
John  is  introducing  a  conception  which  he  had  inherited  as  a  Jew  and 
which  was  native  to  his  mind  and  thought  before  he  had  ever  heard  of  the 
Gospel  or  known  his  Lord.  But  while  there  are  no  philological  or  gram- 
matical reasons  for  rejecting  this  interpretation,  there  are  the  strongest 
indications  present  through  an  analysis  of  his  thought  which  render  such  a 
meaning  utterly  improbable. 

In  the  first  place,  he  is  giving  the  words  of  Christ.  Knowing  the  atti- 
tude of  Christ  on  this  way  of  interpreting  religion  we  know  that  such  a 
conception  could  not  be  His  and  there  is  no  reason  for  thinking  that  St. 
John  has  given  any  turn  to  this  thought  in  order  to  establish  a  view  of  his 
own.  Christ  presents  Himself  to  His  disciples  as  a  Son  who  has  a  commis- 
sion from  His  Father  and  this  commission  includes  not  only  what  He  should 
say  but  also  how  He  should  say  it.  Here  is  where  our  words  begin  to 
cumber  the  thought  and  make  it  hard  to  penetrate  with  speech  into  the  real 
meaning  which  He  was  endeavoring  to  make  clear  to  them.  We  have  the 
hard  objective  way  of  looking  at  His  life  and  give  the  common  turn  of 
meaning  to  His  words.  He  does  not  think  of  Himself  as  a  messenger  sent 
out  alone  to  deliver  the  law  of  the  Judge  and  Ruler  of  all  the  earth.  He  is 
preeminently  and  fundamentally  a  Son.  The  commandment  of  God  is  not 
an  external  law  under  which  He  is  forced  to  act,  but  the  power  of  it  and  the 
imperative  character  which  belongs  to  it  come  from  His  own  inward  sym- 
pathy and  harmony  with  God's  will.  It  constrains  Him  not  as  an  alien 
force  but  by  the  very  roots  which  it  has  in  His  own  will  and  nature.  It  is  a 
law  to  Him  because  it  is  also  the  very  principle  of  His  own  life.  He  mani- 
fests and  obeys  the  commandment  or  the  will  not  because  He  is  compelled 
to,  but  because  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of  His  own  inner  nature.  It  is  the 
absolute  impossibility  of  wishing  or  doing  otherwise  that  makes  in  the 
forms  of  human  speech  a  commandment,  but  it  is  lifted  by  the  very  nature 
of  Jesus  into  the  transcendental  atmosphere  of  filial  relations.  And  so  it 
is  likewise  with  the  setting  forth  of  this  commandment  or  the  obedience  to 
it.  However  much  emphasis  we  may  lay  upon  the  articulate  and  verbal 
expressioa  of  this  commandment,  we  know  that  the  words  fall  back  for  their 
meaning  and  power  upon  the  life  which  they  express  and  out  of  which  they 
issue.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  has  its  chief  if  not  only  value  in  its  relation  to 
His  character  and  consciousness.  His  nature  is  the  perfectly  revealed  will 
of  God.  He  is  the  commandment  of  God.  The  contents  of  His  very  words 
are  Himself.  If  we  use  the  word  commandment  here  in  anything  like  the 
way  Ha  wishes  us  to  understand  it,  doubtless  it  means  that  it  was  a  com- 
mandment to  Him  not  to  speak  what  He  spoke  only,  but  to  be  what  He  was. 
Now  speech  may  be  but  the  executive  presentation  of  a  foreign  will,  but 
"/tf  be"  means  the  inward  and  joyful  assent  of  the  nature  and  the  consent 


THE  COMMANDMENT  OF  GOD.  251 

of  the  entire  will  to  the  life  that  wishes  itself  to  be  expressed.  The  man- 
datory character  of  this  will  lies  in  its  perfection  and  its  inward  command 
over  the  sources  and  energies  of  the  soul's  noblest  thought.  It  is  not  easy 
to  measure  the  words  of  Christ,  and  when  we  pass  beyond  the  speech  into 
the  consciousness  out  of  which  it  issued  and  try  to  analyze  the  interior 
volitions  and  spiritual  affinities  and  affections,  we  are  oppressed  with  our 
own  ignorance  and  dulness  of  vision.  Yet  out  of  our  own  Christian  exper- 
ience come  some  gleams  of  light  which  help  confirm  us  in  the  conviction 
that  His  own  life  and  His  own  words  have  roused  within  us.  We  can  and 
do  say  that  Christ  commands  us  to  be  pure  and  gentle  and  loving.  Any 
noble  soul  could  do  this.  All  great  souls  have  been  one  in  this  high 
demand.  Yet  what  makes  His  command  not  a  command  for  us,  but  a 
command  to  us  .■'  Here  is  where  we  pass  into  the  region  of  what  is  real  and 
vital.  It  is  the  irresistible  pressure  of  His  perfection,  the  revelation  of  the 
supreme  beauty  of  that  which  He  commands,  that  wrings  from  the  soul  in 
its  first  reluctance  a  deep  consent.  Not  to  be  at  once  perhaps,  but  to  wish 
to  be.  We  do  not  discuss  or  dispute  His  right.  The  beauty  of  goodness  is 
imperative  to  the  soul  and  its  right  is  acknowledged  instantly  by  the  recog- 
nition which  the  soul  confesses  of  its  power  and  glory.  There  is  no  com- 
mandment like  this  that  the  soul  has  ever  known.  Christ  presents  Himself 
to  us  and  we  cannot  help  it.  He  is  completely  and  perfectly  all  that  we 
feel  is  noblest  and  most  holy,  and  the  soul  instinctively  rushes  out  to  consent 
to  His  appeal.  For  appeal  is  the  one  word  we  use  here  to  describe  the 
tenderness  and  gentleness  with  which  He  gains  us,  but  at  bottom  this 
appeal  has  a  moral  and  spiritual  imperativeness  transcending  Kant's 
"  Categorical  Imperative  ". 

That  is  the  testimony  of  the  soul's  submission  to  the  high  moralities  of 
life.  This  is  the  passionate  assertion  of  the  spirit  of  man  to  the  lofty 
sanctities  of  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ.  God  simply  is  in  His  love  for 
men  what  He  is,  and  Christ  feels  His  being  as  a  command  to  express  the 
same  character.  Jesus  simply  is  to  us  what  He  is,  and  we  feel  His  being  as 
a  command.  A  command  not  because  it  is  a  legal  requirement,  but  because 
we  feel  its  insistence  exerted  immediately  over  the  will  and  spring  of  all 
our  finest  desires.  It  is  here  in  this  spiritual  and  psychological  form,  and 
not  in  its  legal  and  objective  character,  that  we  are  to  understand  and 
interpret  this  use  of  the  word  "commandment"  by  Jesus.  For  we  know 
that  the  supreme  object  of  His  life  was  to  renew  the  filial  mind  in  men  and 
to  re-establish  the  filial  relation  as  a  conscious  element  of  the  soul's  life. 

Now  a  spiritual  relation  cannot  be  enforced  by  an  outward  requirement 
or  a  legal  statute,  and  even  the  common  moralities  of  life  rest  upon  the  in- 
ward capacity  of  men  to  feel  their  beauty  and  echo  their  assertion  of  the 
moral  law.  The  utter  sterility  and  emptiness  of  all  legal  conceptions  with 
reference  to  the  production  of  spiritual  life  are  made  manifest  the  moment 
we  attempt  to  go  to  the  roots  of  character  or  the  springs  of  action.  It  is  in- 
spiration that  counts  here  and  not  the  barriers  of  the  law.  It  is  the  opening 
of  new  fountains  in  the  soul,  and  not  the  flat  dictation  of  supreme  power. 


252  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Nothing  is  more  characteristic  in  the  life  of  Christ  than  the  inwardness 
of  His  real  life.  "  I  have  meat  to  eat,  that  ye  know  not  of  ",  He  says,  and 
we  feel  the  presence  there  in  the  secret  of  His  will  of  the  divine  love  lifting 
it  and  feeding  it  with  the  energy  of  the  infinite  goodness.  The  mystery  of 
the  Gospel  is  the  mystery  of  the  mind  of  Christ  becoming  interior  to  the 
mind  of  man  and  forming  a  new  consciousness  which  has  as  its  foundation 
and  fullest  expression  the  realization  of  the  sonship  of  man  to  God.  This 
new  relation  and  this  new  consciousness  determine  the  life  and  character 
with  an  accuracy  which  no  external  dictation  could  enforce.  It  is  the 
spiritual  energy  within  the  life  which  is  more  potent  than  any  thunders  from 
Sinai.  It  is  when  this  word  "  entola  "  or  "commandment "  is  used  by  Christ 
as  issuing  from  a  relation  and  an  outflow  of  spiritual  activities  that  it  has 
this  interior  meaning  and  this  spiritual  basis.  In  the  Gospel  of  St,  John  it 
is  used  several  times.  May  I  ask  you  to  spend  a  few  moments  examining 
these  passages  ?  In  John  lo  :  [8  occurs  that  remarkable  passage  which  lifts 
us  into  the  very  face  of  the  spiritual  strength  of  Christ.  Beginning  with  v. 
17,  He  says  :  "  Therefore  doth  My  Father  love  Me,  because  I  lay  down  My 
life,  that  I  may  take  it  again.  No  one  taketh  it  from  Me,  but  I  lay  it  down 
of  Myself.  I  have  power  (or  right)  to  lay  it  down  and  I  have  power  (or 
right)  to  take  it  again.  This  commandment  received  I  of  My  Father  ".  It 
was  the  love  of  the  Father,  the  will  of  salvation  which  were  imperative  for 
Him.  Love  always  commands  us  with  its  own  power  which  is  of  perfect 
appropriation.  It  re-creates  our  will  and  the  new  will  becomes  the  law  of 
our  being.  No  other  meaning  is  possible  for  this  passage.  On  the  other 
hand  in  John  11  :  57  we  meet  with  the  common  use  of  the  word :  "  Now  the 
chief  priests  and  the  Pharisees  had  given  commandment,  that  if  any  man 
knew  where  He  was,  he  should  shew  it,  that  they  might  take  Him".  This 
is  external  in  all  its  aspects.  It  is  social  or  statutory  authority  laying  its 
demands  without  the  least  reference  to  character  or  the  interior  disposition  ; 
it  is  the  legal  demand  which  asks  only  for  an  automatic  response.  In  John 
13:34  we  are  swept  back  again  into  the  stream  and  sphere  of  spiritual 
relations  and  activities.  "  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you  that  ye 
love  one  another;  even  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one  another  ". 
No  one  can  possibly  understand  the  word  commandment  here  as  equivalent 
in  quality  or  range,  corresponding  in  meaning  or  character  with  the  legal 
authority  of  the  Pharisees.  Its  meaning  and  efficacy  lay  in  the  inward 
persuasion  which  the  perfection  of  His  love  exerted  upon  their  dispositions, 
and  the  creative  energy  of  His  affection,  It  is  not  an  injunction,  but  a  new 
spirit,  the  spirit  of  His  love,  filling  them  too  with  a  similar  love.  Even  the 
most  rigid  and  narrow  legalist  among  His  hearers  could  not  but  feel  that 
the  word  commandment  had  a  new  meaning  and  a  loftier  and  more  awful 
authority  than  even  the  law  of  Moses.  For  the  spirit  of  God  was  testifying 
to  the  spirit  of  man  and  the  heart  of  man  felt  the  new  life  urging  its  own 
necessities.  In  the  14th  chapter  we  have  three  passages  in  which  this  phrase 
is  used:  "  If  ye  love  Me,  ye  will  keep  My  commandments".  "He  that 
hath  My  commandments,  and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  Me ;  and 


THE  COMMANDMENT  OF  GOD.  253 

he  that  loveth  Me  shall  be  loved  of  My  Father,  and  I  will  love  him,  and 
will  manifest  Myself  unto  him  ".  "  But  that  the  world  may  know  that  1 
love  the  Father,  and  as  the  Father  gave  Me  commandment,  even  so  I  do  ". 
In  all  these  passages  there  lies  back  behind  the  sense  of  command  the 
authority  which  creates  it.  This  authority  is  not  external  to  the  man  or  to 
the  Son  Himself.  It  is  love  that  in  its  re-enforcement  of  the  spiritual 
energies  proves  its  own  authority.  For  the  highest  feelings  are  a  law  to  the 
soul  which  no  ordinance  of  man  or  tradition  can  coerce  or  destroy.  The 
floods  are  risen  up  and  sweep  the  soul  on  into  new  channels.  It  is  not 
authority  based  upon  outward  claims,  but  the  principle  of  the  real  life  of 
man  responding  to  the  presence  of  the  divine  life  that  floods  it  with  its 
regenerating  power.  It  is  the  determining  power  of  a  new  love,  the  passion 
of  a  new  affection.  Loyalty  to  duty  carries  men  to  death,  but  the  Son  of 
God  goes  to  the  cross  with  a  joy  no  man  can  measure,  in  obedience  to  the 
very  law  of  His  being,  and  reveals  the  strength  of  the  inward  demand  which 
is  the  ultimate  fact  in  man's  true  relation  to  God. 

In  the  15th  chapter  the  same  phrase  occurs  three  times  again.  "  If  ye 
keep  My  commandments,  ye  shall  abide  in  My  love;  even  as  I  have  kept 
My  Father's  commandments  and  abide  in  His  love  ".  "This  is  My  com- 
mandment, that  ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you  ".  The  secret  of 
His  love  is  the  foundation  of  their  new  lives.  It  is  a  secret  because  it  is 
that  which  is  felt  and  in  the  inward  stores  of  the  soul's  affections  makes  its 
claims.  This  is  its  only  and  supreme  authority.  No  man  can  prove  the 
necessity  of  obedience  to  Christ,  for  it  rests  upon  no  outward  claims.  This 
obedience  which  ranges  free  above  all  the  prescriptions  of  man  and  all  the 
ordinances  of  religion  is  the  fountain  of  all  pieties  of  life  and  heroisms  of 
character.  It  is  always  aspiring  to  new  elevations  and  reaches  forward  to 
larger  and  nobler  living.  Its  aim  is  the  full  realization  of  its  filial  relation, 
and  it  drives  the  soul  with  the  pressure  of  an  ever  expanding  affection.  It 
is  the  most  baffling  and  puzzling  thing  in  the  history  of  the  human  soul  and 
is  the  despair  of  the  world,  for  it  stands  upon  nothing  but  its  inward  expe- 
rience and  deep  conviction  which  can  never  be  set  forth  in  decrees  or  laws. 
The  more  the  soul  feels  the  love  of  God.  the  more  the  spirit  of  the  Son 
g^ows  into  fulness  and  power,  the  more  imperative  and  complete  becomes 
the  insistence  with  which  the  spirit  plunges  on  into  the  fullest  possession 
and  expression  of  its  filial  character.  This  is  the  unique  and  mysterious 
fact  of  the  new  Christian  personality.  In  the  immediate  contact  of  God 
with  the  human  soul  conscious  of  its  sonship,  there  is  an  enormous  expan- 
sion of  vision  and  power.  The  spiritual  capacities  are  vitalized  by  the 
energy  of  the  divine  life  and  each  life  unfolds  itself  under  the  creative  force 
of  the  divine  love  and  gives  full  and  joyful  obedience  to  the  inward  pressure 
of  the  new  life  that  is  seeking  realization  and  expression.  This  interpreta- 
tion of  the  commandment  will  be  confirmed  if  we  regard  the  obedience  not 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  external  act,  but  of  the  inward  disposition  and 
assent.  The  human  will  in  relation  to  a  legal  demand  stands  clearly  dis- 
criminated and  separate  from  that  requirement.     There  is  a  certain  mechan- 


254  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN, 

ical  adjustment  on  the  part  of  the  individual,  and  his  personality  is  by  no 
means  merged  in  the  law.  In  the  case  of  the  obedience  of  Christ  there  is 
the  steady  and  easy  flow  of  the  nature  forward  along  the  divine  will,  with  the 
purpose  of  God  working  dynamically  as  an  interior  energy  and  not  a 
mechanical  or  even  a  moral  compulsion.  The  Divine  will  is  His  will,  and 
the  manifestation  of  His  nature  is  the  revelation  of  the  nature  of  God.  They 
are  not  two  separate  things,  two  factors  combined  in  a  given  result,  but  the 
organic  unity  in  which  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  elements  can  be  separated 
and  distinguished  as  the  particular  contributions  of  two  distinct  personali- 
ties. We  do  not  say  of  His  life  or  act,  this  is  the  special  issue  of  the 
character  and  disposition  of  Christ,  and  this  other  is  the  clearly  defined 
manifestation  of  the  will  of  God.  The  obedience  of  Christ  we  feel  to  be  the 
essential  will  of  God,  for  that  obedience  is  set  forth  in  a  moral  nature  and  a 
spiritual  character  that  is  congruous  with  the  character  of  God.  This  being 
the  psychological  and  internal  order  of  the  spiritual  facts,  it  throws  the  legal 
estimate  of  the  words  "commandment"  and  "obedience"  under  a  new  law  or 
principle  of  interpretation,  and  that  law  or  principle  is  found  in  the  essential 
unity  of  the  will  of  God  and  the  mind  of  Christ.  But  the  full  significance  of 
this  order  of  interpretation  comes  more  fully  into  the  light,  vihen  we  consider 
the  entire  passage  as  setting  forth  the  law  of  the  life  of  man  in  its  organic 
and  fundamental  relations  with  Christ. 

"I  know  His  commandment  is  life  everlasting",  or  as  the  revised  ver- 
sion has  it:  "  I  know  that  His  commandment  is  life  eternal".  The  two 
terms  of  "  life  eternal",  or  "  zoe-aionios ",  mutually  qualify  and  define  each 
other.  Let  us  take  the  adjective  first.  Like  all  great  words,  "  aionios  "  has 
its  popular  and  its  scientific  meaning.  It  is  a  phrase  not  only  of  common 
speech,  but  of  philosophical  significance.  In  its  primary  meaning  as  used  for 
a  term  of  accurate  thought  and  definition,  it  means  that  which  is  apart  and 
above  time.  That  is,  the  category  of  time  has  no  relation  whatever  with  it. 
It  is  neither  a  limitation  nor  an  extension  of  the  conception  which  is  planted 
in  the  idea  of  time.  Kant  tells  us  that  the  categories  of  time  and  space  are 
the  necessary  laws  or  conditions  under  which  all  knowledge  of  sensuous 
things,  taking  the  term  in  its  widest  extension,  must  be  attained.  Now,  I 
am  not  trying  to  introduce  the  Critical  Philosophy  into  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John,  or  smuggle  Transcendental  Ideas  into  the  speech  of  Jesus,  but  I  am 
using  these  distinctions  in  order  to  reach  back  to  the  fact  that  super- 
sensuous  facts,  spiritual  realities,  ought  not  to  be  treated  as  lying  under  the 
same  conditions  of  apprehension  as  those  which  belong  to  the  physical 
phenomena  or  the  ordinary  mental  processes  of  everyday  life. 

Only  in  its  most  popular  and  derivative  uses  does  the  term  have  a 
quantitative  meaning.  It  specifically,  and  particularly  in  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John,  has  a  qualitative  significance.  "  Eternal  life  "  is  a  special  kind  of  life 
that  only  in  a  loose  and  rhetorical  way  can  we  say  admits  of  quantitative 
increase  or  decrease.  Goodness  is  goodness  always,  and  any  increase  in 
it  means,  not  by  dimensions  or  measurement,  but  by  vividness,  intensity 
and  reality.     Its  character  and  its  quality  are  always  the  same.     It  is  with- 


THE  COMMANDMENT  OF  GOD.  255 

out  succession.  There  was  no  time  when  goodness  became  goodness.  It 
neither  increases  or  decreases  by  age  or  term  of  years.  So  wiih  all  moral 
and  spiritual  facts.  They  are  truths,  and  the  reality  of  truths  of  this  order 
lies  in  their  quality  and  the  energy  with  which  they  act  in  the  world  of 
man's  spiritual  nature.  But  the  most  important  word  in  this  phrase  is 
"  zoe  ".  It  occurs  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  34  times.  It  is  generally  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  significant  words  in  this  Gospel.  It  is  moreover  almost 
never  used  to  signify  mere  physical  life  or  even  mental  activity.  1  here  are 
many  ways  in  which  we  can  approach  it  and  find  at  least  some  phases  of 
its  meaning.  As  contrasted,  for  instance,  with  death,  it  means  union  and 
fellowship  with  God.  For  death  is  separation  from  Him ;  not  separation 
in  the  sense  of  being  outside  of  Him  physically  or  metaphysically,  but  as 
having  different  moral  ideals  and  spiritual  purposes;  an  atmosphere  in 
which  the  mind  and  will  of  God  are  not  the  prevailing  and  dominating 
characteristics.  Outside  of  God,  hence,  means  outside  of  the  world  of 
His  spiritual  life.  His  affection,  love,  purity,  holiness.  And  not  to  have 
these  as  the  contents  of  the  soul  is  to  be  dead.  There  is  only  one  life  in 
the  thought  of  Christ,  and  that  is,  God.  The  word  is  lifted  to  its  highest 
significance.  The  pallid  existence  of  men  whose  spiritual  natures  are 
stunted  and  dwarfed,  in  whose  veins  the  sluggish  flow  of  weak  spiritual 
purposes  hardly  keeps  alive  the  moral  will  of  the  man,  is  not  life.  It  lacks 
that  essential  fulness  and  blessedness  which  are  of  the  very  essence  of 
God's  being.  His  perfect  glory  and  our  perfect  joy.  Now  the  fulness  of 
life  does  not  consist  in  our  recognition  of  the  fact.  It  is  not  the  mere  indi- 
vidual apprehension,  the  feeling  of  the  presence  of  an  existence  in  which 
the  person  has  no  part  or  share,  but  the  divine  life  flows  into  the  human 
life  until  the  divine  consciousness  of  its  own  character  and  sweetness  and 
power  become  the  consciousness  of  the  individual  soul  that  has  become 
partaker  of  this  life.  The  qualifying  adjective  "  aionios  "  is  not  therefore  a 
quantitative  term,  but  rather  a  distinctly  spiritual  one.  "  Eternal  life  "  is 
the  qualitative  essence  of  the  character,  not  continuity  or  quantity  of  life. 
The  adjective  is  used  with  the  noun  in  this  Gospel  nine  times  and,  without 
examining  each  passage  in  detail,  we  may  assert  without  much  danger  of 
contradiction  that  it  has  this  specifically  spiritual  meaning.  Life  is  eternal, 
because  in  the  first  place  it  is  life  real  and  actual  as  no  other  life  is.  It  inten- 
sifies the  conception  of  life  by  showing  its  real  and  spiritual  origin.  We 
can  the  more  readily  see  this  inasmuch  as  the  word  or  adjective,  "eternal ", 
in  St.  John's  Gospel  is  only  used  with  life.  It  is  the  distinctively  qualifying 
adjective  of  that  word.  Eternal  life  is  therefore  the  inseparable  condition 
or  accompaniment  of  the  entrance  into  the  real  life  of  the  spirit.  It  has  no 
date,  or  rather,  if  it  has,  it  is  reckoned  from  the  moment  of  entrance  into 
Christ,  or  spiritual  acceptance  or  inward  appropriation  of  the  Gospel  as  the 
matter  is  presented  to  us  as  a  personal  appropriation  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  the 
inward  consent  of  the  nature  to  the  law  of  His  being.  All  adjectives  repre- 
sent qualities,  and  it  is  not  a  correct  use  of  words  to  convert  an  attribute 
into  a  cause  and  say  that  eternity  is  what  makes  the  life  eternal.     Nor,  on 


2s6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  other  hand,  is  it  possible  to  place  the  terms  in  the  order  of  antecedent 
and  consequent  and  affirm  that  life  being  in  eternity  it  becomes  partaker  of 
its  character.  Further,  we  may  affirm,  that  the  acceptance  of  the  Gospel 
does  not  confer  eternal  life.  The  matter  is  more  closely  and  organically 
related.  Eternal  life  is  the  subjective  state  represented  by  the  objective 
statement  of  the  knowledge  of  God  or  the  reception  of  the  Gospel.  Christ 
is  life.  The  reception  of  Christ  or  God  is  the  actual  acceptance  of  life. 
It  is  the  dynamic  activity  of  the  Divine  life  that  constitutes  the  life  of  the 
believer.  "  This  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  God  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  He  hath  sent ".  The  knowledge  here  is  not  used  in  any  intellectual 
way  whatever.  It  means  that  inward  and  spiritual  recognition  which  is 
equivalent  to  the  term  "faith"  in  St.  Paul.  The  contents  of  life,  which 
are  God  and  Christ,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  physical  experiences  of 
men.  Death  is  not  the  beginning  of  eternal  life,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the 
resurrection  the  date  of  its  origin.  Christ  had  life  in  Himself  from  the  very 
beginning. 

He  also  gives  life  in  giving  Himself.  It  is  this  personal  and 
immediate  participation  in  eternal  life  which  distinguishes  the  words  of 
Christ  in  this  Gospel  from  the  conventional  use  of  the  phrase.  "  I  know 
that  His  commandment  is  eternal  life",  Jesus  says.  Eternal  life  is,  not 
shall  be.  It  is  the  presence  and  the  revelation  of  the  Divine  will  in  the  life 
of  man.  But  it  is  the  life  of  man  as  consciously  determined  by  the  will  of 
God,  and  the  consciousness  of  its  supreme  beauty  and  truth.  The  moral 
and  spiritual  evidence  of  this  beauty  and  truth  are  found  by  men  in  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  the  incarnation  of  this  holiness  and  love,  grace  and  truth. 
These  are  His  revelations,  revelations  not  of  Himself  but  of  God.  His  Self 
is  the  expression  of  the  Divine  Self.  The  submission  of  the  soul  to  Him, 
the  obedience  of  the  heart  to  His  inward  disposition,  creates  a  new  moral 
and  spiritual  consciousness.  The  union  wrought  out  between  the  soul 
Christ  loves  and  the  soul  that  loves  Christ  is  not  a  merely  external  union, 
but  is  like  that  which  exists  between  the  Father  and  the  Son.  In  this 
blending  or  transforming  of  the  inward  consciousness  issues  the  sense  and 
certainty  of  Christ.  So  at  the  end,  each  through  his  own  spiritual  experi- 
ence is  able  to  affirm  as  a  member  of  Christ  that  which  Christ  declares  is 
the  heart  and  meaning  of  His  own  life.  "  For  I  speak  not  from  Myself : 
but  the  Father  which  sent  Me,  He  hath  given  Me  a  commandment,  what  I 
should  say,  and  what  I  should  speak,  and  I  know  that  this  commandment 
is  life  eternal :  the  things  therefore,  which  I  speak,  even  as  the  Father  hath 
said  unto  Me,  so  I  speak  ". 


•THE  WASHING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES'  FEET  AND  THE  LAW  OF  SERVICE. 

(St.  John  13: 1-17-) 
by  rkv.  kdavin"  ai^onzo  blaick,  ph.  d.,  d.  r>.. 

Pastor  of  the  Tremont  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 

The  event  which  we  are  to  consider  at  this  time,  is  one  of  very  great 
importance.  Largely  so,  if  I  mistake  not,  because  it  is  the  embodiment  of 
a  law  that  underlies  all  Christian  civilization.  We  are  to  consider  it  of 
course  as  generic  in  kind  and  not  specific.  There  are  those  I  believe  who 
actually  do  upon  occasion  wash  one  another's  feet.  I  certainly  would  not 
be  willing  to  question  their  Christianity  as  thus  manifested,  for  I  have  the 
most  profound  respect  for  all  who  "  profess  and  call  themselves  Christians"  ; 
but  it  seems  to  me  we  are  to  seek  here  the  spirit  rather  than  the  lelter,  to 
discover  the  law  embodied  in  the  act  rather  than  perceive  the  act  alone. 

The  scene  also  marks  the  closing  events  in  the  history  of  our  Lord's 
personal  work  on  earth.  The  opening  sentence  of  chapter  13,  "  Before  the 
feast  of  the  Passover  ",  would  preclude  the  thought  that  it  is  the  Pascal 
supper  that  is  being  described.  Neither  could  the  action  have  taken  place 
according  to  the  King  James'  translation,  "after  supper  was  ended  ",  neither 
as  the  Revision  has  it,  "during  supper  ",  for  it  will  readily  be  observed  that 
at  either  time  it  would  have  been  inopportune.  Rather  is  the  thought  that 
supper  time  had  arrived.  In  coming  from  the  bath,  probably  with  unsandled 
feet,  they  had  become  somewhat  dusty  again.  According  to  the  usual  custom 
they  found  the  basin  of  water  prepared  for  them.  It  might  have  been  the 
duty  of  the  youngest  disciple  to  perform  this  service,  or  possibly  the  one 
whose  turn  it  was  from  the  last  meal,  as  was  not  unfrequently  the  case.  A 
conversation  had  taken  place,  however,  which  turned  the  whole  trend  of 
things  and  presented  to  our  Lord  a  most  remarkable  opportunity  to  impress 
a  great  lesson.  So  great  was  the  lesson  of  service  to  mankind  impressed 
upon  him  or  from  some  other  cause,  that  John  omitted  that  most  interesting 
story  which  to  me  seems  the  pivotal  point  of  the  Master's  act.  

For  this  we'^must  turn  to  Luke,  and  there  we  have  it  in  chapter  22, 
v.  24.  Although  they  had  traveled  so  much  with  the  Lord  and  had  so  long 
listened  to  His  teaching,  they  had  as  yet  failed  to  grasp  the  meaning  of 
greatness  in  His  kingdom,  and  they  had  been  contending  who  should  be 
accounted  the  greater.  By  referring  to  Luke  you  will  observe  that  Jesus 
had  told  them  that  one  of  them  had  it  in  mind  to  betray  Him.     This  causes 


Delivered  at  the  Kifth  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  February  lo,  1904. 

257 


258  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Professor  Dods  to  remark,  in  regard  to  this  strife  among  the  disciples,  that 
"  the  juxtaposition  of  this  strife  among  ;he  eleven  with  ihe  anncunctment  of 
the  traitor  gives  to  it  by  comj  arisen  the  aspect  of  a  pardonable  infiimity 
in  otherv\  i?  e  loyal  men,  and  it  is  so  treated  by  Jesus  ",  If  it  were  the  custom 
of  the  younger  to  do  the  feet  washing  upon  such  occasions,  we  can  see  a 
very  forceful  meaning  to  the  words  of  our  Lord  in  Luke,  when  He  said, 
"  He  that  is  the  greater  among  you,  let  him  become  the  younger,  and  he 
that  is  chief,  as  he  that  doth  serve  ". 

But  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  pause  long  over  the  interpretation 
of  causes  which  led  to  the  Saviour's  action  at  this  time.  I  think  we  Mill  all 
agree  that  the  great  Teacher  seized  upon  the  circumstances  to  impress 
a  lesson  in  serving  for  His  disciples  then  and  for  all  time  to  come.  I  think 
I  can  also  observe  that  it  was  to  be  the  key  note  to  the  highest  type  of  all 
coming  civilization.  There  is  one  predominant  feature  in  Christianity, 
which,  if  I  mistake  not,  differentiates  it  from  all  other  religions,  \iz.:  it  has 
an  ideal  to  which  it  is  ever  tending.  You  will  recall  that  the  Lord  at  one 
time  remarked  that  His  mission  was  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfi'.  The 
thought  is  that  we  have  as  it  were  the  seeds  of  the  future  ideal  in  the  old 
dispensation,  and  that  He  came  to  add  new  life  and  vigor  that  it  might 
attain  the  ideal.  1  o  this  end  He  bent  the  energies  of  His  short  life,  and 
sought  so  to  instruct  His  followers  that  they  might  carry  on  the  same  work. 
It  is  in  this  unfolding  that  we  behold  the  beauty  of  this  little  story  under 
consideration.  If  this  new  church  was  to  look  for  a  new  kingdom,  where 
were  they  to  search  lor  the  foundations?  In  ether  words,  what  was  to  be 
the  governing  principle  or  law  that  was  to  control  it? 

When  the  time  arrived  when  the  most  menial  service  was  to  be  per- 
formed, with  the  conversation  of  dispute  still  ringing  within  His  ears,  He 
disrobes  Himself  accoidirg  lo  custcm,  takes  the  basin  of  water  and  the 
towel  and  stoops  to  the  humble  woik.  When  He  had  completed  the  wash- 
ing and  reinvested  Himself  with  His  gaimenis  and  reclined  with  them  at 
the  table,  He  explained  the  meaning,  and  then  added  as  recorded  in  v. 
15,  "For  I  have  given  you  an  example,  that  ye  also  should  do  as  I  have 
done  to  you  ".  Here,  then,  we  behold  the  law  of  service,  which  is  to  be  the 
law  of  all  Christian  civilization. 

In  this  act  the  Leader,  the  acknowledged  King,  has  shown  by  actual 
example  what  He  rightfully  expects  of  every  subject.  It  needs  but  a 
cursory  glance  at  His  life  frcm  His  entrance  upon  His  mission  to  its  com- 
pletion, that  service  for  others  had  been  the  rule  of  His  own  life,  and  why 
should  He  not  expect  it  of  those  vho  were  to  be  called  by  His  name  ? 

Before  entering  upon  the  application  of  this  law  in  various  modes  of 
life,  1  wish  to  direct  ycur  attention  to  a  few  circumstances  which  to  me 
seem  very  significant. 

I.  Our  Lord  was  fully  conscious  that  His  end  was  near  and  that  the 
shadow  of  the  cross  was  dark  athwart  His  pathway.  This  is  indicated  in 
the  first  verse  of  chapter  13,  "Jesus  knowing  that  His  hour  was  come  that 
He  should  depart  out  of  this  world  unto  the  Father  ". 


THE  WASHING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES'  FEET.  259 

Such  times  are  usually  occasions  of  ceasing  from  labor.  He  had  done 
all  He  could  to  impress  the  grandeur  of  His  mibsicn  i  pen  ihe  woild,  lut  had 
been  repulsed  at  every  point,  and  now  Hisveiy  life  was  to  te  itquirfd 
at  the  hand  of  His  enemies;  and  v\  hat  would  seim  to  mtkt  the  n'.atter  moie 
serious,  was  the  fact  that  at  the  very  table  >Aith  Him  was  the  man  who  was 
to  betray  Him.  But  it  was  the  last  opportunity  that  was  to  prett nt  itielf  for 
impiessing  this  great  law  upon  their  minds,  and  with  that  calmness  and 
self  poise  always  characteristic  of  the  great  Teacher,  He  faltered  not. 

2.  I  notice  again  thai  Jesus  was  conscious  of  His  greatness.  The 
third  verse  of  this  chrpter  reads,  "  Jesus  kncwirg  ih;.t  the  Fatl  er  had  given 
all  things  into  His  hands,  and  that  He  came  forth  from  God,  and  goeth  unto 
God  ",  etc. 

Consciousness  of  power,  of  divine  power  withal  did  not  hinder  Him  in 
the  performaiiCe  of  this  service.  Such  being  the  case,  He  must  have  been 
aware  that  at  His  command  He  could  have  escaped  the  cross  and  have 
destroyed  His  enemies.  Greatness  and  condescension  are  here  biought 
face  to  face.  None  but  the  great  could  successfully  face  such  difficulties. 
The  act  was  the  natural  outcome  of  that  greatness  and  not  the  greatness  of 
the  act.  1  presume  many  of  us  could  recall  deeds  performed  by  men  which 
of  themselves  were  noble.  These  men  may  have  done  many  such  deeds,  still 
no  one  considered  them  great  men.  Sinister  motives  setmtd  to  luik  beneath 
the  action  depriving  it  of  its  apparent  greatness.  It  is  only  when  we  keep 
in  mind  that  the  great  purpose  of  Christ  was  to  reveal  the  way  of  God  to 
mankind,  to  show  us  the  great  Father-heait  cf  Gcd  as  extmplified  in  His 
own  lile  that  we  can  understand  why  when  conscious  of  His  divine  origin 
and  power  He  did  not  resent  the  manifold  indignities  so  often  manifested 
toward  Him,  and  at  once  seek  retribution.  1  his  has  too  often  been  the  spirit 
shown  by  His  followers.  He  might  frequently  have  said  to  many  of  them, 
"  Have  1  been  so  long  with  you  and  yei  hast  thou  not  known  Me  ?"  Eut 
as  life  or  death  were  before  Him  it  certainly  must  have  been  within  His 
power  to  take  either  one  or  the  other.  Frcm  subsequent  expressicns  we 
are  to  judge  that  life  had  its  charms  for  the  Holy  One  as  it  dees  for  jou 
or  me.  We  must  not  be  oblivious  of  His  humanity  when  we  exalt  His 
divinity.  But  He  also  discovered  the  import  of  the  law  which  He  was  atcut 
to  emphasize,  and  for  the  moment  turning  His  back  vpon  His  conscicus 
greatness  He  performs  the  act  under  circumstances  of  the  greatest  trial. 

3.  The  intensity  of  Jesus'  love  is  worthy  of  attention.  John  of  all  the 
disciples  seems  to  have  most  appreciated  the  lovirg  heart  of  Jesus.  It 
impresses  him  more.  The  only  commandment  of  Christ  which  seems  to 
impress  John  is  that  of  love.  In  his  first  epistle  (4:21),  he  thus  writes: 
"And  this  commandment  have  we  from  Him,  that  he  who  loveth  God  love 
his  brother  also".  Then  when  writing  to  the  "elect  lady",  he  refers  to  a 
commandment  which  they  had  had  from  the  beginning,  and  that  command- 
ment was  love  to  one  another.  God's  love  thus  manifested  through  the  Son 
was  a  constant  wonder  to  John.  "  What  manner  of  love  "  he  exclaims.  By 
this  the  Apostle  sees  that  we  are  called  the  "  sons  of  God  ".     In  his  Gospel, 


26o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

in  the  very  beginning,  he  declares  that  it  was  love  that  brought  Christ  to  the 
world,  and  that  belief  in  Him  would  bring  the  life  eternal.  Not  content 
with  such  assertions  he  rises  to  the  more  wonderful  declaration  that  "God 
is  love  ",  and  that  he  that  would  abide  in  God  must  abide  in  love  (i  John 
4:8,  1 6).  I  suppose  that  the  assertion  that  God  is  love  is  a  description 
rather  of  the  character  than  of  the  being  of  God.  One  has  well  said,  I  think, 
that  "this  truth  was  for  John  a  simple  conclusion  from  the  mission  and  work 
of  Jesus.     It  was  the  inference  regarding  the  unseen  from  the  seen  ".* 

We  are  unable  to  fathom  the  immense  influence  that  the  act  of  feet- 
washing  by  our  Lord  had  upon  the  "  beloved  disciple  ".  The  statement  in 
the  first  verse  of  the  chapter  under  consideration  is  significant :  "  Having 
loved  His  own  that  were  in  the  world,  He  loved  them  unto  the  end  ".  The 
words  "  His  own  "  must  be  considered  in  a  little  more  restricted  sense  than 
the  same  words  in  the  first  chapter  and  eleventh  verse.  Here  it  would  seem 
that  He  is  referring  to  that  little  band  of  twelve  whom  He  had  selected  for 
their  instruction  in  taking  up  the  work  which  He  was  soon  to  leave  in  person. 
If  this  be  accepted,  it  will  make  it  a  little  more  interesting.  We  commend 
the  love  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  for  the  race,  but  when  we  realize  that  the 
love  is  for  the  individual,  that  very  concentration  makes  it  more  valuable. 

I  think  our  admiration  of  Jesus'  love  and  for  the  menial  act  is  height- 
ened and  deepened  when  we  remember  that  he  who  was  to  betray  Him  was 
in  their  company  and  received  this  service  from  the  hand  of  his  Master.  It 
had  already  been  put  into  Judas'  heart  to  betray.  I  cannot  quite  agree  with 
Meyer  that  Satan  put  it  into  his  own  heart,  for  it  was  his  intention  to  destroy 
the  work  of  the  Son  of  God  from  the  beginning.  The  Saviour  knew  full 
well  at  that  time  who  was  to  betray  Him,  that  he  was  already  pondering  it 
within  his  heart,  and  yet  despite  this.  He  loved  him  and  yearned  for  his  soul. 
Our  Lord  saw  the  events  about  to  transpire,  and  yet.  His 

"  Love  alters  not  with  His  brief  hours  and  weeks, 
But  He  bears  it  even  to  the  edge  of  doom". 

II.  The  Washing  of  the  Feet.  We  now  come  to  the  distinguishing  act 
of  that  eventful  hour.  The  act  of  that  occasion  was  but  another  illustration 
of  the  law  of  service  which  the  great  Teacher  had  at  all  times  sought  to 
enforce.  You  will  remember  that  John  and  James,  the  sons  of  Zebidee, 
came  to  Him  upon  a  certain  occasion  seeking  important  positions  in  His 
coming  kingdom,  but  that  without  attempting  to  disabuse  them  of  their 
error  in  regard  to  the  character  of  that  kingdom,  He  at  once  showed  them 
that  for  the  attainment  of  that  or  any  position  in  His  kingdom,  there  was 
service  to  be  done.  It  matters  little  which  Greek  word  is  used  which  we 
translate  "service"  or  any  of  its  derivatives;  He  at  all  times  seeks  to 
impress  the  thought  that  we  roust  serve  humanity  and  thereby  we  are  serving 
God. 

Recall  for  a  moment  the  scene  of  the  12th  chapter  of  this  Gospel. 


♦Gilbert:  "  Interpretations",  p.  313. 


THE   WASHING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES'  FEET.  261 

Certain  Greek  philosophers  had  been  seeking  an  interview  with  the  Lord. 
This  little  band  of  Greeks  were  well  versed  in  their  own  mythology,  and 
taking  advantage  of  this,  Jesus  made  use  of  an  illustration  probably  based 
on  the  Eleusinian  mystery,  and  by  it  they  were  enabled  to  comprehend  the 
teaching  of  the  coming  of  a  new  life  from  an  old  or  former  life.  They  were 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  legend  of  Dionysus,  his  second  birth  with  Semele 
as  his  mother,  and  acquainted  with  the  myth  of  Persephone.  From  these 
came  the  symbol  of  vegetation  shooting  up  with  such  verdure  at  spring  time, 
and  apparently  withdrawing  into  the  earth  as  autumn  approaches.  Whtn, 
therefore,  the  Teacher  used  the  illustration  of  v.  24  they  understood  its 
meaning.  "  Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die  it  abideth 
alone  ".  Then  followed  what  would  have  been  a  paradox  without  the  pre- 
ceding assertion,  "he  that  loveth  his  life  loseth  it".  Here  is  the  law  of 
service  taught  which  our  Lord  is  about  to  illustrate  to  His  disciples  and 
finally  to  the  world.  If  you  have  no  service  to  render,  no  death  to  die,  you 
will  remain  alone,  would  seem  to  be  the  thought  there  expressed. 

You  well  know,  as  the  margin  indicates,  that  for  the  word  here  trans- 
lated "  life  ",  two  different  words  appear  in  the  Greek.  If  you  are  anxious 
to  keep  your  individual  life,  your  manhood,  you  must  be  willing  to  sacrifice 
it  in  doing  good  for  others.     This  done,  you  will  gain  the  life  eternal. 

This  He  failed  not  to  apply  to  Himself  as  He  beheld  the  darkening 
athwart  His  pathway.  Although  He  did  say  "  Father,  save  Me  from  this 
hour".  He  immediately  exclaimed:  "For  this  cause  came  I  unto  this 
hour  ".  He  felt  then,  as  ever,  that  His  life  was  one  of  service  for  humanity, 
even  unto  the  death  of  the  cross. 

Let  us  take,  if  you  will,  that  wonderful  parable  known  as  that  of  the 
Good  Samaritan.  It  has  been  an  inspiration  for  hundreds  of  years  to  all 
Christendom.  Orders  have  been  formed  upon  it  as  a  ruling  principle,  and 
charitable  institutions  have  received  their  life  from  it  as  a  foundation.  It  is 
within  the  very  warp  and  woof  of  all  working  Christianity.  But  what  does 
it  record  ?  A  little  act  of  service  whose  immediate  teaching  is  to  reveal  the 
meaning  of  neighbor,  but  whose  ultimate  end  is  to  teach  us  that  that 
neighbor  needs  our  service. 

The  principal  record  of  the  eleventh  chapter  is  the  raising  of  Lazarus, 
but  the  ground  thought  for  us  to  learn  is  that  Christ  served  in  that  hour  of 
trouble.  But  to  me  one  of  the  greatest  representations  of  this  law  of 
service  by  way  of  teaching  is  given  by  the  great  Leader  in  His  description 
of  the  judgment.  They  are  represented  as  coming  to  Him  after  He  has 
told  them  that  they  are  to  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  them.  So 
greatly  are  they  astonished  that  they  are  represented  as  crying  out  to  Him  : 
"  When  did  we  do  this  ?  We  have  no  remembrance  of  seeing  Thee  in  such 
condition  and  ministering  unto  Thee".  The  answer  is  significant.  "Inas- 
much as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  these,  My  brethren,  even  the  least,  ye  did  it 
unto  Me  ". 

To  me  it  has  seemed  that  Jesus  illustrated  all  these  teachings  by  the 
feet-washing.     It  would  almost  appear  that  He  might  have  said  to  His  fol- 


2^2  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

lowers,  "  You  have  been  with  Me  for  a  long  while  now.  You  have  heard 
what  I  have  said  about  service  in  the  world.  I  have  been  seeking  to  show 
you  that  it  lay  at  the  very  foundation  of  all  greatness.  It  is  at  the  very 
entrance  of  My  kingdom  and  you  must  understand  what  it  means.  You  are 
all  seeking  greatness  in  that  kingdom.  You  are  thinking  as  did  the  lawyer, 
'  What  good  thing  may  I  do .'"  I  can  say  no  more.  I  want  you  to  scan  My 
life,  it  has  been  one  of  service  from  the  beginning.  You  must  allow  Me  to 
wash  your  feet  as  the  symbol  of  what  I  mean  ".  After  saying  this  they  saw 
the  light,  and  Peter  cried  out,  "  Lord,  not  my  feet  only,  but  my  hands  and 
my  head  ". 

In  this  act  shines  the  light  of  which  Professor  Beardslee  spoke,  "The 
study  of  Christ's  mission,  if  it  follows  the  lead  of  John,  will  center  around 
one  word, — light.  Christ  is  the  light  of  the  world  ".  So  here  He  becomes 
our  light,  and  there  is  no  need  of  walking  in  darkness. 

I  might  emphasize  here  the  value  of  doing  over  feeling,  I  have  known 
people  to  wander  in  the  dark  for  weeks  and  all  because  so  much  stress  was 
placed  on  "  how  do  you  feel ",  and  when  the  candidate  could  claim  no  bet- 
ter feeling  he  was  told  he  must  feel  a  little  worse,  plead  a  httle  more,  and 
then  he  might  feel  a  little  better.  Just  what  this  meant,  or  just  what  was 
the  process  through  which  he  was  to  pass  was  never  made  quite  plain,  but 
it  was  fully  taught  that  his  acceptance  depend*  d  largely  on  feeling. 

The  teaching  of  Christ,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to  see,  calls  upon  us  first  to 
do  something  for  God,  and  the  feeling  will  naturally  follow.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  Master  was  constantly  telling  men  to  give,  even  if  it  were 
but  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  the  thirsty,  as  well  as  many  other  things,  and 
when  they  had  done  these  righteous  things  in  the  name  of  Christ  or 
becaule  they  had  accepted  Him  as  their  guide  they  would  receive  the 
righteous  man's  reward.  Feeling  will  undoubtedly  follow  in  a  majority  of 
cases,  but  we  are  to  do  something  first  and  consider  the  feeling  as  a  result. 

Application  of  the  Law. — If  the  act  of  feet-washing  embodied  a  law,  as 
I  have  already  stated  to  be  my  belief,  it  must  be  universally  applied. 
When  we  studied  arithmetic  or  the  higher  mathematics,  it  was  the  custom 
to  state  the  rule  and  then  illustrate  it  by  some  appropriate  example.  But  in 
reality,  although  I  do  not  remember  that  the  teachers  told  us  so,  the  rule  of 
course  followed  from  the  example.  It  could  not  be  otherwise.  So  here 
from  the  great  Teacher  we  have  first  the  example,  and  from  that  follows 
the  rule.  You  have  observed  that  the  disciples  wanted  to  know  why  He 
should  do  this  act,  and  He  told  them  to  allow  the  act,  and  He  would  after- 
ward explain.  This  was  also  the  case  at  the  time  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus, 
when  John  was  about  to  forbid  His  coming  to  him,  "  Suffer  it  to  be  so 
now  ",  was  the  answer,  waiting  for  subsequent  developments  to  substanti- 
ate the  assertion,  "  It  becometh  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness  ". 

I.  Nations.  The  law  must  be  applied  to  nations  in  their  dealings 
with  each  other. 

This  was  the  one  great  lapse  in  the  grasp  of  thought  among  the 
Hebrews.     Accept  to  the  full  extent  that  they  were  a  "chosen  people", 


THE   WASHING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES'  FEET  263 

that  God  had  given  them  a  revehition  superior  to  what  had  been  received 
by  the  nations  about  them,  they  never  seemed  to  comprehend  the  fact  that 
such  privileges  demanded  a  service  on  their  part  to  t  leir  neighbors.  They 
grew  to  be  more  and  more  exclusive,  and  finally  thought  no  one  was  fit  for 
existence  but  their  own  nation.  It  would  seem  that  they  were  sufficiently 
warned  of  this  fault  of  exclusiveness.  There  are  those  who  believe  that  the 
story  of  Jonah  was  written  to  show  them  the  larger  opportunities  which 
they  might  embrace,  but  the  "  hermit "  thought  possessed  them  so  thor- 
oughly that  it  controlled  them  to  the  days  of  the  promised  Messiah.  If  we 
are  to  follow  out  this  law  there  can  be  no  hermit  nations. 

In  our  time  this  law  is  manifesting  itself  nationally  in  reciprocity 
treaties.  It  may  be  doubtful  if  the  greedy  politician  recognizes  the  source 
or  feels  its  full  import  when  he  is  arguing  such  national  measures,  but  it  is 
most  certainly  an  exhibition  of  serving  one  another. 

In  the  same  category  must  be  classed  the  boards  of  arbitration,  of 
which  we  hear  so  much  in  this  century. 

You  may  recall  that  President  Woolsey,  in  his  "Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  International  law",  says  that  the  Roman  Imperial  Power  origi- 
nally fulfilled  this  function,  and  that  it  was  feebly  perpetuated  by  the  popes 
in  the  mediaeval  times.  Henry  IV  of  France  sought  by  some  such  means 
to  avert  religious  wars,  and  so  on  through  the  succeeding  years  it  has  been 
the  strenuous  efforts  of  many  national  leaders  to  confederate  the  nations  in 
such  a  manner  that  war  might  be  averted  and  the  weaker  nations  pre- 
served. It  was  reserved  for  those  living  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  to  witness  a  mighty  nation  espousing  the  cause  of  a  despised 
people,  fighting  their  battles  for  them,  and  then  raising  them  to  the  honor 
and  dignity  of  statehood  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  I  opine,  however, 
that  the  world  has  not  yet  seen  the  full  outcome  of  the  application  of  the 
law  of  service  among  nations.  I  contend,  without  approving  or  disapprov- 
ing of  recent  methods,  or  without  entering  the  arena  of  politics  at  all,  that 
it  is  a  service  which  this  country  has  owed  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  for 
more  than  a  half  century  to  construct  and  maintain  a  waterway  across  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama.  I  also  maintain  that  all  intercourse  of  one  nation  with 
another  should  be  based  on  this  Christ  Law  of  Service.  It  would  not  be 
politic  to  study  this  law  at  this  time  in  all  its  ramifications  in  these  direc- 
tions, neither  is  there  time  ;  but  if  ever  any  nation  attains  to  the  highest 
possible  Christian  civilization,  it  will  only  be  by  accepting  and  working 
upon  Christ's  Law  of  Service. 

One  has  well  said,  "  That  the  principle  of  service  sees  the  world  no 
longer  as  divided,  fragmentary,  a  disconnected  series  of  spheres  *  *  * 
but  as  one  world,  an  organism,  a  cosmos,  a  single  sphere  in  which  is  no 
higher  or  lower,  no  academic  aristocracy  or  detached  group  of  the  learned, 
but  an  interdependent,  associated,  common  life,  involving  the  researches  of 
the  recluse  and  the  bent  back  of  the  man  with  the  hoe  ".* 


*  Professor  Peabody :   "  The  Religion  of  an  Educated  Man  ",  p.  8i. 


264  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

2.  Literature.  This  brings  us  naturally  to  the  application  of  the  law 
of  service  to  literature. 

Possibly  there  is  no  better  illustration  than  the  service  of  literature 
rendered  to  England  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  It  was  one  of  the 
great  factors  which  assisted  in  bringing  about  the  great  revolution  without 
recourse  to  arms.  Carlyle  seemed  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the  law  and  was 
willing  to  apply  it  to  himself.  Those  were  immortal  words  which  he  wrote, 
and  worthy  of  inscription  in  gold  and  to  be  placed  in  the  sanctum  sanc- 
torum of  every  aspirant  in  literature  : 

"  We  are  here  to  do  God's  will.  The  only  key  to  a  right  life  is  self- 
renunciation.  The  man  who  lives  for  self,  who  works  for  selfish  ends  is  a 
charletan  at  bottom,  no  matter  how  great  his  powers.  The  man  who  lives 
for  self  alone  has  never  caught  a  vision  of  the  true  meaning  and  order  of 
the  universe.  *  *  *  Life  shall  be  a  barren,  worthless  thing  for  me  unless 
I  seek  to  fall  in  with  God's  plan,  and  do  the  work  that  He  has  sent  me 
here  to  do  ". 

Scarcely  less  important  are  the  words  of  that  noble  Italian  patriot  who 
providentially  sojourned  an  exile  in  England  at  that  time,  and  who  espoused 
the  cause  of  liberty  of  that  strange  land:  Joseph  Mazini.  He  wrote:  "Life 
is  a  mission.  Every  other  definition  of  life  is  false  and  leads  all  who  accept 
it  astray.  *  *  *  Life  is  a  mission,  a  duty,  therefore  its  highest  law. 
In  the  comprehension  of  that  mission,  and  fulfilment  of  that  duty,  lies  our 
means  of  future  progress,  the  secret  of  the  stage  of  existence  into  which  we 
shall  be  initialed  at  the  conclusion  of  this  earthly  stage  ". 

What  could  be  truer  to  the  law  of  service  than  the  expression  of  these 
two  leaders  in  the  literature  of  their  times.  But  they  were  not  the  only 
ones  who  used  their  pens  for  what  to  them  seemed  for  the  good  and  exalta- 
tion of  their  country  and  their  fellow  men.  If  you  are  at  all  familiar  with 
Mazini's  life  {Joseph  Mazini^  His  Lije,  Writings,  Etc.  pp.  129-200),  you  will 
recall  that  it  was  not  enough  for  him  to  be  engaged  in  these  public  benefac- 
tions in  the  cause  of  liberty.  Finding  that  there  were  hundreds  of  Italian 
children  in  London  who  were  extremely  ignorant,  his  great  loving  heart 
was  so  moved  that  he  induced  men  of  means  to  assist  in  founding  a  school 
for  their  instruction. 

At  this  period  Charles  Dickens  was  just  entering  upon  his  career,  which 
was  to  make  him  one  of  the  foremost  instrumentalities  in  bringing  light  to 
darkest  England.  Elizabeth  Barrett,  Thomas  Hood  and  a  host  of  others 
were  heard  in  verse  and  prose  sounding  the  note  of  freedom ;  legislators 
heard  the  cry  of  humanity  and  consecrated  their  pens  to  its  services. 

It  is  impossible  for  one  to  trace  the  far-reaching  influence  that  the  true 
literate  has  had  in  moulding  and  fashioning  society.  There  are  no  more 
hopeful  signs  of  the  times  than  the  fact  that  such  men  as  Ely,  and  Vincent, 
and  Zeublen  and  many  other  men  of  letters  have  been  willing  to  use  their 
pens  and  time  in  what  is  termed  the  Citizen's  Library  Economics,  Politics 
and  Sociology,  whose  aim  is  to  make  scientific  work  in  the  field  of  the 
humanities  clear  and  interesting  to  ordinary  intelligent  citizens.     And  I 


THE   WASHING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES'  FEET.  265 

doubt  if  the  world  ever  saw  the  day  when  so  many  of  our  men  of  education, 
college  presidents  and  professors,  noted  clergymen  and  leaders  of  society 
offered  themselves  in  free  service  for  all  mankind.  Never  were  so  many 
books  published,  and  good  ones,  too,  to  help  the  rising  generation.  I  well 
remember  when  "Todd's  Students'  Manuel"  was  not  only  the  best  but 
about  the  only  book  of  its  kind,  but  now  it  is  not  so.  Almost  every  man  of 
any  standing  in  literature  gives  us  the  benefit  of  his  education.  You  can 
well  imagine  my  chagrin  the  other  day  when  your  secretary  asked  me  what 
books  I  had  written.  All  I  could  do  was  to  remark,  in  the  language  of  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Daniel  Curry,  that  I  know  too  much  to  write  a  poor  one  but 
not  enough  to  write  a  good  one.  I  rejoice  that  so  many  educated  men  are 
consecrating  their  knowledge  and  pens  for  the  public  good. 

4.  The  Church.  We  now  ask  ourselves  the  question,  what  service 
shall  the  church  render  to  humanity  ?  The  day  of  controversy  has  very 
nearly  passed.  Heresy  is  little  thought  of  except  now  and  then  when  the 
superior  light  of  some  noted  professor  shines  so  brightly  that  it  blinds  our 
eyes  and  we  think  he  is  in  the  dark  when,  forsooth,  it  is  ourselves,  and  we 
wish  to  try  him  for  heresy.  But,  generally,  all  is  at  peace  and  the  church 
stands  confronted  with  tremendous  problems. 

You  may  recall  that  Canon  Fremantle  *  claims  that  the  fourth  and 
fifth  chapters  of  John's  Revelation  reveals  the  ideal  or  destination  of  the 
church  of  God.  In  the  center  is  the  slain  lamb,  that  is  God  made  known 
through  the  self-renouncing  love  expressed  in  the  cross  of  Christ.  Sur- 
rounding these  are  the  elders  representing  the  redeemed  humanity,  then  the 
four  living  beings  which  represent  the  animate  creation.  He  claims  that  we 
must  take  this  vision  as  representing  a  world  right  about  us,  and  not  far 
away,  that  is  being  slowly  but  steadily  transformed  by  the  expansion  of  the 
Christian  church.  Whatever  definition  we  may  give  to  the  church,  its  mis- 
sion is  a  service  for  humanity.  As  Christ  came  to  the  multitudes  to  help 
them,  so  are  we  to  go  to  the  multitudes  in  His  stead  today  and  render  them 
the  service  we  are  able  to  give. 

I  wish  especially  to  call  your  attention  to  the  latter  part  of  v.  15,  and 
the  whole  of  v.  16.  They  seem  to  me  to  b^  significant: — "That  ye  should 
do  as  I  have  done  to  you.  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  a  servant  is  not  greater 
than  his  lord:  neither  one  that  is  sent  greater  than  he  that  sent  him" 
This  of  course  will  be  seen  to  refer  directly  to  the  scene  of  washing  that  has 
just  transpired.  Turn  now  if  you  will  to  v.  34,  and  there  you  will  read: — 
"A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another  ".  It  would 
almost  seem  that  the  great  Exemplar  paused  for  a  moment  to  get  their 
attention,  for  what  He  was  about  to  say  was  what  there  was  new  in  this 
commandment.  Their  attention  riveted  upon  Him,  He  continues: — "  Even 
as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  love  one  another  ". 

The  word  "even"  denotes  conformity  rather  than  a  simple  compari- 
son.    Their  love,  to  be  forever  manifested,  is  to  be  of  the  same  nature. 


•  Fremantle:  "  The  World  a  Subject  of  Redemption  ",  p.  8. 


266  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

The  two  ways  of  rendering  this  passage  are :  i.  "I  give  you  a  new  com- 
mandment, that  ye  love  one  another  with  the  same  devotion  with  which  I 
have  loved  you".  2.  "I  give  you  a  new  commandment,  that  ye  love  one 
another,  even  as  up  to  this  moment  I  loved  you,  in  order  that  you  may 
imitate  My  love  one  toward  another  ".*  While  the  first  rendering  gives  the 
character,  the  second  rendering  gives  iho.  g'oitfid  oi  that  mutual  Christian 
love.  The  revised  version  gives  this  in  the  margin.  That  love  which  was 
to  be  the  characteristic  of  the  new  commandment  was  on  that  occasion 
manifested  in  the  act  which  at  first  Peter  so  strenuously  deplored. 

Indeed  He  had  manifested  His  superiority,  not  only  to  them,  but  His 
superiority  to  the  age  in  which  He  was  living.  His  words  so  fitly  spoken  at 
all  times;  His  self  control  under  the  most  trying  circumstances;  His  fear- 
lessness, yet  gentleaess  of  bearing  had  all  disclosed  to  them  that  superiority, 
while  now  the  closing  act  of  His  short  life  had  clearly  demonstrated  to  them 
that  He  was  willing  to  use  that  transcendent  greatness  in  lifting  the  race  to 
its  rightful  position.  His  very  coming  to  the  earth,  His  denial  of  the  glory 
which  He  had  with  the  Father,  would  and  did  demonstrate  this ;  but  they 
could  not  then  understand  that  any  more  clearly  than  we  do  now,  and  so  to 
give  the  example  that  all  might  understand,  He  stoops  to  the  menial  service 
of  washing  the  disciples'  feet. 

We  sometimes  hear  the  cry,  "give  us  the  old  time  religion",  and  it  is 
doubtful,  if  many  who  are  sounding  this  through  the  land  understand  what 
it  means.  Mr.  Ely  in  one  of  his  lectures  t  says  that  while  the  metaphysicians 
are  crying : — "  Back  to  Kant  1 "  or  "  Back  to  Plato  1 "  let  the  church  raise  the 
cry : — "  Back  to  Christ !  "  This  is  what  I  understand  by  the  *'  old  time 
religion  ",  and  not  one  of  noise  and  emotionalism.  It  may,  and  will  to  a 
certain  degree  possess  both  of  these,  but  it  will  be  because  the  church, 
Christian  people  are  willing  to  bring  aid  as  Christ  did  to  the  degraded 
humanity  by  being  its  servant. 

In  the  light  of  this  interpretation,  there  is  a  place  for  every  follower  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  when  he  is  out  of  that  place,  he  is  of  no  use  to  the  world. 
If  one  has  gained  education  beyond  one's  fellows,  it  is  the  imperative  duty 
for  that  one  to  use  it  among  the  ignorant  or  those  who  are  not  as  enlightened. 
The  thanks  of  this  whole  land,  yea,  of  the  whole  Christendom,  are  due  to 
President  Eliot  and  a  score  of  other  men  of  like  character,  who,  in  the 
plenitude  of  their  research  are  willing  to  meet  their  opponants  on  social 
questions  in  open  fair  debate. 

It  certainly  has  a  tendency  of  removing  the  "  caste  "  feeling  which  our 
Lord  so  greatly  deplored,  and  which  the  act  before  us  so  greatly  wounded. 
We  are  living  in  an  age  of  service,  a  service  of  love  for  mankind,  and  it  is 
the  opini  m  of  many  eminent  men  that  it  has  never  been  equaled  in  its  com- 
prehensive love  of  man.  The  rich  are  beginning  to  realize  as  never  before 
that  wealth  means  more  than  self-aggrandizement.     It  means  that  they,  as 


*  Vincent:  "  Word  Studies  in  the  New  Ttstament  ",'p.  236. 
t  Ely:  "  Social  Aspects  of  Christianity  ",  p.  149. 


THE  WASHING  OF  THE  DISCIPLES'  FEET  267 

its  possessors,  are  but  stewards  to  do  service  for  humanity,  and  so  the  last 
year  surpassed  all  others  in  its  gifts  of  beneficence.  In  this  renaissance 
appears  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa  ion,  the  University  Settlements, 
the  Students'  Volunteer  movement  and  other  methods  of  helping  humanity, 
all  of  which  show  that  we  are  catching  the  spirit  of  Christ  when  He  laid 
aside  His  garments,  and  He  took  a  towel  and  girded  Himself,  and  poured 
water  into  the  basin,  and  began  to  wash  the  disciples'  feet. 

I  believe  with  Dr.  Rice  that  "  the  Man  of  Nazareth  has  still  a  message 
even  for  those  who  rejoice  in  the  discovery  and  possession  of  the  new 
worlds  of  truth  revealed  by  modern  science  ".* 


*  Professor  Rice:  "  Christian  Faith  in  an  Age  of  Science  ",  p.  6. 


*  THE  GLORinCATlON  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN. 

BY    RE"V.    SAIVLUEI^    HART,    T).    D.,   r>.    C.    L., 

Professor  of    Doctrinal  Theology  and  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  Berkeley 
Divinity  School,  Middletown,  Conn. 

St.  John  13:31,  32. 

"  Now  is  glorified  the  Son  of  Man, 
And  God  is  glorified  in  Him  ; 
And  God  shall  glorify  Him  in  Himself, 
And  straightway  shall  He  glorify  Him  ". 

St.  John  17:5. 

"And  now  glorify  Thou  Me,  Father,  with  Thyself, 
By  the  glory  which  before  the  world  was  I  had  with  Thee". 

I.  As  we  pass  on  in  the  study  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  we  see  more  and 
more  distinctly  how  the  beloved  disciple  was  led  to  know  the  Master 
and  to  interpret  and  record  His  works.  Especially  as  we  come  under 
the  shadow  of  the  cross  and  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  light  which  lies 
beyond  it,  we  see  how  one  of  whom  we  think  as  most  closely  following  and 
understanding  the  Lord,  learned  the  meaning  of  the  great  revelation  of  the 
life,  the  death,  and  the  life  resumed.  He  saw  in  it  all,  as  he  traced  it  out 
from  the  beginning,  a  great  progress  from  God  to  God,  of  one  who  came 
forth  from  the  Father  and  came  into  the  world,  and  again  left  the  world 
and  went  unto  the  Father.  A  later  Apostle  noted  the  steps  of  humihation 
from  the  assumption  of  human  nature  to  the  acceptance  of  the  death  of  the 
cross,  and  then  as  following  upon  this  the  exaltation  to  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father ;  and  as  he  wrote,  St.  Paul  thought  of  the  glory  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  the  humiliation  and  a  reward  of  the  obedience.  Such,  indeed,  from 
the  standpoint  of  man  it  was,  and  in  this  way  the  facts  are  doubtless 
rightly  represented  to  our  minds  and  rightly  understood.  But  St.  John 
looked  at  these  same  events  as  he  knew  that  Christ  Himself  looked  at  them, 
and  he  saw  them  in  the  light  of  the  divine  plan  and  counsel;  and  in  their 
Godward  aspect  he  learned  that  the  cross  was  not  an  interruption  of  the 
great  work,  nor  was  the  Resurrection  an  undoing  of  the  power  of  the  death, 
or  even  a  recompense  for  it;  from  Bethlehem  to  Olivet,  nay,  as  I  was  saying, 
from  God  to  God,  it  was  a  great  progress,  the  triumphal  march  of  a  com- 
batant and  conqueror,  the  revelation  of  the  inherent  glory  of  the  Son  of  God, 
the  assumption  of  the  merited  glory  of  the  Son  of  Man.  "  I,  if  1  be  lifted 
up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Myself  " ;  the  Lord  spoke  these 


*Deliveied   at   the   Sixth     Conference,  held   at   the    Trinity   Union    Methodist    Episcopal    Church, 
March  9,  1904. 

268 


THE  GLORIFICATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN.         2O9 

words  as  He  entered  into  the  last  tremendous  conflict,  and  He  spoke  them, 
St.  John  himself  tells  us,  "  signifying  by  what  death  He  was  about  to  die  " ; 
but  the  "lifting  up"  was  not  upon  the  cross  alone;  it  was  that,  indeed, 
but  it  was  that  as  a  step  in  the  ascent  to  the  Father.  And,  in  point  of  fact, 
it  is  not  the  Christ  dead  upon  the  cross  who  has  drawn  and  still  draws 
humanity  to  His  worship  and  obedience ;  it  is  the  Christ  in  heaven,  "  the 
Lamb  as  it  had  been  slain  ",  the  accepted  sacrifice,  the  living  priest,  the 
head  over  all  things  to  the  church. 

And  this  expression  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  truths,  although  we 
find  it  most  clearly  stated  in  the  argument  and  the  words  of  St.  John's 
Gospel,  is  not  peculiar  to  him.  St.  Luke,  when  entering  upon  his  long 
record  of  the  events  of  our  Lord's  last  journey  to  Jerusalem,  says  that  He 
steadfastly  set  His  face  thitherward  "when  the  time  was  come  that  He 
should  be  received  up"  ;  so  that  he,  too,  looked  upon  the  way  of  the  cross 
as  the  way  of  glory.  And  there  are  many  phrases  which  show  that  even 
St.  Paul  wrote  sometimes  more  like  a  mystic  than  like  a  scholastic 
theologian,  and  centering  his  thoughts  upon  God  saw  the  one  great  plan 
which  was  purposed  from  eternal  ages,  not  interrupted  but  furthered  by 
the  cross. 

Thus,  indeed,  it  must  have  been  for  all  who  entered  into  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  Lord's  teaching  about  Himself.  They  saw  the  childhood,  the 
youth,  the  opening  manhood  of  the  holy  Man  follow  in  the  wonderful 
naturalness  of  perfection ;  there  was  no  change  of  purpose,  no  break  of  con- 
tinuity, when  upon  them  there  followed  the  public  ministry  with  its  gracious 
teaching  and  its  deeds  of  love,  its  conflicts  with  sin  and  error,  its  mighty 
testimony  to  this  truth ;  and  they  saw  that  it  was  a  step  to  the  greatest  vic- 
tory when  the  life  submitted  to  death  that  it  might  gain  new  power,  that  it 
might  enter  upon  a  loftier  state  of  existence,  and  that  it  should  then  be 
communicated  to  those  who  could  receive  it.  Christ  Jesus  lived  and  taught, 
suffered  and  died,  that  He  might  attain  and  impart  the  new  life. 

Thus  it  was  that  when,  His  earthly  ministry  having  ended,  He  had  dedi- 
cated Himself  to  death,  He  knew  and  declared  that  He  had  reached  the 
time  of  His  glorification.  He  had  shown  Himself  to  be  the  Lamb  without 
blemish  and  without  spot;  He  had,  before  the  hands  of  wicked  men  had 
been  violently  laid  upon  Him,  devoted  Himself  to  death  when  He  presented 
to  the  Father  the  bread  and  the  wine  of  the  last  Paschal  feast  and  the  first 
Eucharist,  or  at  least — for  we  cannot  be  certain  of  the  exact  sequence  of 
events — He  was  about  to  offer  this  great  sacrifice  of  Himself  and  to  bid  His 
disciples  to  continue  a  memorial  of  it  until  He  should  come  again  ;  Judas 
had  left  that  little  company,  in  which  he  no  longer  had  his  place,  and  had 
gone  out  into  the  night  to  fulfil  the  awful  part  which  he  had  chosen  for  him- 
self;  and  Jesus  said  to  the  eleven  who  were  left,  waiting  in  hope  and  fear 
for  what  might  prove  the  issues  of  that  night,  "  Now  is  the  Son  of  Man 
glorified".  A  day  or  two  before,  when  the  conflict  with  His  own  people 
was  at  its  height,  and  Gentiles  had  come  to  ask  for  Him,  He  had  said  that 
the  hour  of  His  glorification  was  at  hand  ;  but  now  the  sacrifice  was  in  true 


270  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

symbol  and  in  full  intent  offered,  or  to  be  offered,  and  the  Lord  spoke  of 
the  act  as  just  completed  :  "  Now  was  glorified  the  Son  of  Man  ". 

II.  "  The  Son  of  Man  ".  Thus  He  spoke  of  Himself,  as  showing  the 
place  which  He  held  in  the  great  economy  of  the  Father,  declaring  His 
identity  with  humanity  and  His  place  as  the  head  of  humanity,  affirming 
that  He  was  really  man  and  at  the  same  time  representatively  man,  not  one 
among  men  but  one  who  was  the  life  of  all,  who  was  the  one  real  man 
because  He  was  the  one  ideal  man.  And  He,  the  Son  of  Man,  was  now 
ready  to  receive  a  glory  such  as  had  never  reached  humanity  before.  He 
saw  before  Him  the  agony  in  the  garden  and  the  bloody  sweat ;  He  knew 
how  near  to  Him  were  the  cross  and  the  passion,  with  all  that  they  meant 
of  shame  and  pain,  of  contempt  and  dereliction  ;  but  He  saw  beyond  them, 
and — most  important — because  of  them,  the  mighty  resurrection  and  the 
glorious  ascension,  the  enthronement  in  heaven  and  the  kingly  return  ;  He 
knew,  too,  that  this  was  the  true  way — we  need  not  hesitate  to  say  the 
natural  way — in  which  He,  the  Son  of  Man,  was  to  complete  His  work  and 
to  attain  His  destined  place;  and  He  uttered  in  the  hearing  of  His  apostles 
words  which  they  could  not  rightly  understand  then,  but  words  which  it 
was  impossible  that  they  should  forget : 

"  Now  was  glorified  the  Son  of  Man, 
And  God  was  glorified  in  Him  ; 
And  God  shall  glorify  Him  in  Himself, 
And  straightway  shall  He  glorify  Him  ". 

These  were  not,  then,  the  words  of  a  perfect  man  who,  coming  to  the 
end  of  his  appointed  work,  felt  that  he  might  expect  a  reward.  Even  the 
perfect  man  must,  indeed, — paradoxical  as  it  may  seem— advance  in  his 
perfection.  Even  the  perfect  man  must  meet  the  conditions  of  advance  in 
physical  and  mental  and  spiritual  development,  and  must  prove  his  place 
and  stand  forth  as  being  that  which  he  really  is.  Even  the  perfect  man 
must  be  perfect  because  he  has  become  perfect,  and  none  can  be  made  per- 
fect without  trials  and  sufferings.  And  Jesus  Christ  was  certainly  perfect 
as  man,  and  His  humanity  was  made  perfect.  None  before  Him  had  ever 
attained  to  unspotted  holiness,  as  none  before  Him  had  ever  offered  com- 
plete obedience.  He  stood  pre-eminent  among  all  who  have  ever  trod  this 
earth  in  the  many  generations  of  its  history,  and  as  such  there  must  have 
been  a  glory  especially  and  peculiarly  His.  That  glory,  if  I  understand  the 
record  aright,  was  shown  to  Him  on  one  memorable  occasion ;  and  had  He 
been  no  more  than  man,  had  He  been  but  one  among  the  millions  of  human 
kind.  He  might  have  accepted  it  as  His  due  and  have  entered  upon  it  then. 
On  the  holy  mount,  when  not  only  His  life  of  preparation  was  past,  but 
also  He  had  received  the  discipline  and  made  the  progress  which  belonged 
to  His  public  ministry.  His  glory  was  revealed  to  chosen  men  of  both  the 
ancient  and  the  new  dispensation,  and  also  (I  think  we  may  rightly  say  it) 
to  Himself.  Thit  glory  our  Lord  did  not  then  accept,  and  its  vision  faded 
away ;  but  it  left  in  the  memory  and  the  convictions  of  two  apostles  who 


THE  GLORIFICATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN  271 

saw  it — the  other  early  laid  down  his  life  and  left  no  record  of  his  teach- 
ing— a  powerful  teslimonj  as  to  the  reality  and  the  might  of  their  Master's 
majesty,  whom  they  had  for  a  brief  moment  seen  cs  indeed  He  was  and  is. 
But  the  Lord  came  down  from  the  mount,  and  entered  again  and  at  once 
upon  His  work  as  the  healer  of  men's  woes,  and  presently  upon  His  other 
work  as  teacher  and  His  conflict  with  sin.  He  accepted  not  the  transfigu- 
ration glory  which  belonged  to  Him  as  man,  because  He  would  await  and  in 
due  time  gain  the  resurrection  glory,  which  should  be  His  as  the  Son  of 
Man.  The  hour  was  not  yet  come  that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified. 
III.  Now  the  reason  for  this,  as  I  understand  it,  is  two- fold ;  or,  to 
speak  more  accurately,  it  is  a  reason  which  can  be  stated  and  considered  in 
two  ways.  Our  Lord  at  the  time  of  the  transfiguration  had  accomplished 
the  work  of  man,  as  man  might  have  been  had  there  been  no  need  of 
redemption.  He  had,  indeed,  encountered  sin,  and  had  known  its  opposi- 
tion, and  had  removed  some  of  its  results;  but  He  had  not  delivered  men 
from  its  power,  nor  had  He  as  yet  known  in  His  own  experience  the  utter- 
most of  the  power  of  that  which  He  had  come  to  bear.  If  the  words  are 
rightly  understood,  it  may  be  said  that  He  had  fulfilled  the  destiny  of  man 
unfallen,  but  not  as  yet  that  of  man  fallen.  For,  though  He  knew  no  sin, 
and  the  stain  and  corruption  incurred  by  human  nature  did  not  reach  to 
Him,  yet  He  was  sent  "  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for  sin  " ;  and  it 
was  necessary  that  His  holiness  should  reach  down  and  take  hold  of  the 
weakness  and  sin  of  those  whom  He  vouchsafed  to  call  His  brethren.  To 
help  man  fallen.  He  must  humble  Himself  to  the  destiny  of  man  fallen  ;  and 
that  He  would  not  have  done  if  He  had  accepted  the  glory  of  perfect  man- 
hood and  entered  the  presence  of  the  Father  from  the  mount  of  the  trans- 
figuration. And  this  really  implies  the  other  reason  which  I  had  in  mind, 
that  even  in  the  supreme  hour  of  His  ministry,  regarded  as  only  His  minis- 
try, Christ  had  not  identified  Himself  with  us;  He  had  not  become  the 
head  of  the  church,  and  through  the  church  the  head  of  mankind.  The  life 
of  no  mere  man,  be  he  even  the  man  who  alone  should  be  perfect  among 
the  children  of  men,  could  be  communicated  to  all  others  as  the  one  source 
of  their  true  life.  None  but  a  mere  man  could  have  accepted  a  glory  which 
was  not  to  be  shared  with  others;  none  but  the  Son  of  Man  could  have 
left  the  vision  of  the  spiritual  world  and  of  the  eternal  life,  and  calmly  faced 
the  evils  and  sorrows  that  remained  on  earth,  and  turned  His  steps  to 
Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  even  though  it  was  with  sure  faith  that  through 
them  a  path  would  be  found  to  the  opened  grave  and  the  parted  heavens. 
Christ  our  Lord,  because  He  was  the  Son  of  Man,  must  needs  seek  to  tread 
as  deliverer  the  way  along  which  man,  weak  and  fallen,  was  stumbling,  and 
He  must  needs  gain  for  man  a  life  not  only  perfect  but  victorious;  ar.d  life 
completely  victorious — we  may  be  not  able  to  give  the  reason,  but  we  are 
convinced  of  the  truth — is  the  only  high  life  which  is  by  its  nature  communi- 
cable to  others  and  able  to  extend  to  all.  And  no  life  is  completely  victo- 
rious except  that  which  bows  itself  down  to  death  and  rises  again  in  the 
might  of  the  resurrection. 


272  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

IV.  Transfiguration  glory  was  therefore  not  all  that  was  meet  for  the 
Son  of  Man.  Because  He  was  the  Son  of  Man,  He  would  not  accept  that 
which  could  not  be  shared  with  His  brethren ;  because  He  was  the  Son  of 
Man,  He  would  not  enter  into  glory  without  us.  He  came  back  into  this 
world's  life  that  He  might  take  us  with  Himself  into  the  life  of  the  world  to 
come.     How,  then,  was  He  to  be  glorified  as  the  Son  of  Man  ? 

The  answer  has  been  already  in  part  suggested ;  but  that  it  may  be 
truly  stated  and  apprehended,  we  must  keep  in  our  minds  the  full  meaning 
of  glory  as  the  word  is  used  constantly  in  the  Scriptures. 

Glory  is  the  manifestation  of  that  which  has  a  moral  worth  ;  it  belongs 
only  to  that  which  is  in  itself  real  and  true ;  it  is  the  necessary  effulgence  of 
light,  the  revelation  of  true  excellence,  that  by  which  a  rational  being  recog- 
nizes in  a  rational  being  the  qualities  of  holiness  and  reality,  of  justice  and 
love,  and  of  all  that  goes  to  make  up  moral  and  spiritual  perfection.  It  is 
thus  essential  to  the  nature  of  that  to  which  it  belongs  and  which  it  reveals ; 
it  may  be  hindered  in  its  manifestation,  but  it  cannot  be  created  and  it  can- 
not be  destroyed.  It  follows  that  it  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  something 
extraneous,  as  a  golden  crown  which  may  be  put  upon  an  unworthy  head, 
or  a  stately  garment  which  may  be  used  to  cover  up  rags  and  unseemliness ; 
glory,  in  any  right  sense  of  the  word,  is  as  necessary  to  him  in  whom  it  is 
seen  as  is  brightness  to  the  sun,  or  beauty  to  the  flower,  or  order  to  the 
system  of  the  universe.  And  in  a  true  sense  we  may  say  that  God  Himself 
does  not  bestow  glory.  We  do  not,  of  course,  mean  that  He  does  not  first 
create  that  which  is  noble  and  pure  and  true ;  we  do  not  for  a  moment  deny 
that  it  is  His  hand  which  shapes  and  His  spirit  which  gives  life  to  all  that 
has  perfection  of  any  kind,  or  that  even  makes  any  approach  to  perfection ; 
but  as  He  did  not  first  create  the  sun  or  the  flower  or  the  world,  and  then 
give  to  each  its  attribute  of  brightness  or  beauty  or  order,  but  made  each 
to  show  in  itself  that  which  belonged  to  its  very  constitution,  so  it  is  in 
regard  to  that  moral  excellence  of  which  we  are  speaking ;  it  does  of  very 
necessity  reveal  itself,  it  cannot  but  be  glorious.  The  glory  of  God  is  His 
holiness  and  His  love,  those  two  elements  which  specially  enter  into  our 
thought  of  what  we  venture  to  call  His  character ;  and  the  holy  and  loving 
God  must  needs  have  the  glory  which  enters  into  any  true  conception  of 
holiness  and  love,  a  glory  which  none  can  fail  to  see  and  recognize  who 
knows  these  divine  attributes.  In  like  manner,  the  glory  of  a  man  is  in  his 
character  as  he  is  true  to  that  which  he  was  created  to  be  and  to  the  ideal 
toward  which  he  was  meant  to  advance ;  and  even  with  our  bodily  eyes  we 
catch  traces  of  It  on  the  faces  of  the  saints,  and  our  souls  are  conscious  of 
it  when  we  are  in  their  presence.  So  the  glory  of  the  Son  of  Man  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  completion  of  His  work,  in  the  perfection  which  He  was  to 
attain  through  life  and  death  and  life  again,  through  obedience  and  its 
reward,  by  completing  as  Son  of  Man  His  double  service,  that  of  the  Father 
and  that  of  His  brethren. 

The  words,  then,  on  the  Lord's  lips,  "  Now  is  the  Son  of  Man  glorified", 
declared  that  He  had  as  Son  of  Man  finished  His  work  here  and  had  fulfilled 


THE  GLORIFICATION  OF  THE  SON  OF  MAN.  273 

the  destiny  of  man  on  earth.  They  witnessed  to  the  completion  of  that  for 
which  He  had  cast  in  His  lot  with  those  whom,  though  fallen  and  sinful, 
He  had  from  very  love  called  to  become  His  brethren.  Dedicating  Him- 
self to  death,  and  accepting  the  path  of  life  along  which  alone  He  could 
lead  man  with  Himself,  He  had  made  that  great  act  of  self-surrender  which 
was  the  only  way  of  true  victory  for  Him  and  for  us,  and  had  acknowledged 
that  in  this  He  would  find  His  sufficient  reward.  The  inward  victory  had 
been  gained  in  the  surrender  of  the  holy  will  to  do  and  to  suffer  all  that  man 
needed  to  accomplish  and  to  endure;  and  upon  the  inward  victory,  so  the 
Lord  knew,  the  outward  triumph  must  follow. 

Thus,  as  in  one  great  act,  the  Son  of  Man  was  glorified  by  life  and  by 
death,  by  resurrection  and  ascension,  and  is  yet  to  be  glorified  by  that 
return  for  which  His  church  is  waiting.  Thus  in  the  self-surrender  and  the 
deserved  exaltation,  a  death  accepted  because  only  through  it  could  life 
be  attained,  life  possible  only  as  springing  out  of  death,  did  He  who  had 
for  our  sakes  identified  Himself  with  us  fulfil  His  destinj-  and  ours.  Thus 
did  He  gain  His  true  reward,  the  reward  of  greater  service  and  of  greater 
consequent  honor,  the  ability  to  serve  us  by  giving  us  His  resurrection  life 
as  He  had  given  for  us  the  life  in  which  He  lived  on  earth.  Thus,  to  use 
His  own  words,  was  He  glorified,  and  God  was  glorified  in  Him;  for  in  His 
work  was  a  new  revelation  of  the  Father,  made  known  in  His  wonderful 
perfections  of  holiness  and  love  ;  and  thus  was  fulfilled  that  which  He  added 
by  way  of  emphasis  and  assurance,  "God  shall  glorify  Him  in  Himself,  and 
straightway  shall  He  glorify  Him ".  They  are  words  rather  for  devout 
meditation  than  for  critical  examination  and  exposition ;  and  marvellously 
do  they  tell  us  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  as  Son  of  Man,  bringing  glory  to 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  glorifying  His  only  begotten  Son,  when  His 
work  as  Son  of  Man  was  completed,  in  Himself, 

And  somewhat  thus  may  we  venture  to  apprehend  the  meaning  of  the 
petition  which  I  read  at  the  beginning  from  the  Lord's  high-priestly 
prayer;  "Now  glorify  Thou  Me,  Father,  by  the  glory  which  before  the 
world  was  I  had  with  Thee  ".  The  words  in  which  the  eternal  Son,  who 
had  come  forth  from  the  Father,  addressed  the  eternal  Father  to  whom  He 
was  about  to  return,  must  needs  be  words  above  the  full  understanding  of 
men  ;  but  they  do  at  least  contain  the  prayer,  which  on  the  Lord's  lips  was 
a  prayer  in  full  assurance  that  it  was  the  Father's  will  that  it  should  be  ful- 
filled— the  prayer  that  He  who  had  been  made  and  had  become  the  Son 
of  Man,  might  in  His  perfection  as  the  God-Man,  uniting  in  His  one 
Person  two  natures  never  to  be  divided,  have  the  glory  which  belonged 
to  the  God-head ;  that  the  glory  which  before  the  Incarnation  had  been 
His,  might  be  given  Him  as  the  Incarnate  Son,  who  by  the  depth  of 
His  humiliation  and  the  completeness  of  His  obedience  had  gained  for 
Himself  the  name  that  is  above  every  name,  and  for  man  the  privilege  of 
becoming  the  son  of  God  and  even  partaker  of  the  divine  nature.  What 
one  says  in  trying  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  these  great  words  must  needs 
be  said  after  the  manner  of  men  and  most  imperfectly;  but  the  thought 


274  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

inspired  may  lead  to  worship  and  to  that  lofty  faith  which  is  the  spring  of 
all  true  action. 

V.  Thus,  as  He  had  declared  and  as  He  had  prayed,  the  Son  of  God, 
made  Son  of  Man,  was  glorified  by  the  Father  as  in  the  path  of  the  Cross 
He  entered  upon  the  life  which  had  hitherto  been  the  uncommunicated  life 
of  the  Godhead,  to  make  it  communicable  to  men.  Thus  did  He  gain  a 
victory,  not  for  Himself  alone,  but  for  all  who  should  be  in  Him,  for  His 
body  the  church,  and  for  all  humanity.  Thus  did  He  not  only  point  out 
the  way  of  man's  perfection,  but  prove  it  a  real  thing;  thus  did  He  make  it 
possible  for  us  to  enter  into  His  perfection  and  into  His  glory. 


•  OBEDIENCE  TO  THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT  THE  PROOF  OF 

DISaPLESHIP. 

(St.  John  13:34,  35.) 

by   rev.  rockavell   h.  potter, 

Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Harikokd,  Conn. 

.  Brethren  in  the  Conference  :  You  have  asked  me  to  speak  upon 
the  words  found  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John  in  the 
thirty-fourth  and  thirty-fifth  verses,  "A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you, 
that  ye  love  one  another ;  even  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one 
another.  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have 
love  one  to  another ".  Those  who  have  read  thoughtfully  these  chap- 
ters of  the  Gospel  will  have  noted  that  the  chapter  division  which  con- 
cludes the  thirteenth  and  opens  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel 
gives  to  us  at  the  opening  of  the  fourteenth  chapter  those  great  words 
of  comfort  which  are  dear  to  the  heait  of  every  Christian.  Yet  it  is 
unhappy  in  that  it  separates  those  words  of  Jesus  from  the  other  words  in 
His  answer  to  the  question  of  Peter,  and  that  it  separates  the  related  ques- 
tions of  Thomas  and  Philip  and  Judas  from  the  question  of  Peter.  They 
will  have  noted  that  the  real  division  of  the  thought  occurs  at  the  thirty- 
sixth  verse  of  the  thirteenth  chapter  with  the  first  of  the  interrupting' 
questions.  So  we  see  these  verses  to  which  our  thought  is  called  this 
evening  standing  as  Jesus'  own  word  at  the  conclusion  of  the  institution  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  and  as  His  only  introduction  to  the  great  words  of  the 
fifteenth  to  the  seventeenth  chapters  —  the  discourse  of  the  vine  and  His 
prayer  for  the  church.  So  that  I  bring  to  you  one  of  His  great  words 
spoken  at  a  great  moment  in  His  ministry. 

The  supper  had  been  instituted.  That  simple  yet  profound  ceremony 
summed  up  in  itself  great  Christian  truths  that  laid  hold  of  the  thought  and 
heart  of  the  group  of  disciples.  At  its  close  in  that  tragic  moment  Jesus 
had  made  the  delicate  disclosure  of  him  who  should  betray  Him,  and  the 
steps  of  Judas  had  just  died  away  as  he  had  descended  the  stair  from  the 
upper  room.  It  is  as  though  we  had  crossed  the  passion  threshold  and 
were  now  in  the  great  and  holy  place  wherein  was  to  be  enacted  the  sub- 
lime mystery^  of  the  Christian  faith  —  as  though  the  traitor  being  unable  to 
pass  that  threshold  having  just  departed,  had  left  behind  him  the  group  of 
the  disciples  whose  hearts  were  loyal  to  Jesus  and  to  whom  could  be  dis- 
closed the  great  and  eternal  truths  which  were  then  to  be  wrought  out.     So 


*  Delivered  at  the  Sixth  Conference,  held  at  the  Trinity  Union  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  March 
9.  1904- 


276  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

Jesus  speaks  now  the  word  which  is  to  be  the  constituting  principle  of 
the  Christian  church.  The  supper  being  concluded  He  speaks  of  the  glo- 
rification of  the  Son  of  Man  which  is  to  be  wrought  in  Him,  speaking  of  His 
relation  to  God.  Then  He  speaks  of  the  Church  through  which  He  is  to  be 
glorified,  and  announces  the  principle  which  is  to  constitute  that  Church  in 
human  society  —  the  principle  which  is  to  organize  human  society  so  that 
the  great  work  to  which  He  has  laid  His  hand  shall  find  its  full  fruition  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man.  This  then  is  His  word.  "A  new  commandment 
I  give  unto  you  that  you  love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you ;  that  you  also 
love  one  another.  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  you  are  My  disciples, 
because  ye  have  love  one  for  another  ". 

What  then  is  the  content  of  this  great  commandment  which  is 
to  become  the  organizing  principle  of  the  Christian  Church?  What 
then  is  the  content  of  this  commandment  by  which  men  are  to  be 
known  as  His  disciples?  We  read  the  word,  "that  ye  love  one  another", 
and  we  recognize  that  this  is  no  new  word  falling  from  the  lips  of  Jesus. 
The  disciples  had  already  heard  that  message.  Time  and  time  again  had 
He  repeated  the  ancient  command  of  Israel  in  their  ears.  Moreover,  in 
the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  He  had  given  such  large  interpretation 
to  the  word  neighbor  that  they  understood  something  of  the  breadth  of  the 
love  that  was  demanded  of  them  by  Jesus.  What  then  constitutes  this 
command,  "  A  new  commandment  ?  "  Wherein  is  it  that  Jesus  speaks  these 
words  on  the  threshold  of  His  pnssion?  Wherein  is  it  that,  reserving  this 
word  for  this  moment,  He  speaks  of  it  and  says,  "  This  is  the  new  com- 
mand "  ?  "I  have  stated  many  things.  If  you  forget  other  things  which  I 
have  said,  forget  not  this.  I  have  given  many  precepts.  If  these  all  fall 
from  your  lives,  let  not  this  fall.  This  is  the  commandment ".  What  does  He 
mean  ?  Let  us  divest  our  thought  of  those  unworthy  conceptions  that  cluster 
around  these  words.  A  large  part  of  the  meaning  of  the  passage  we  are  apt 
to  lose.  We  love  so  many  things.  We  speak  of  that  which  is  beautiful  to 
the  artistic  sense  and  say  that  we  love  it  because  it  is  a  delight  to  the  eye, 
or  pleasant  to  the  ear,  or  because  in  deeper  meaning  it  satisfies  the  aesthetic 
impulses  of  the  soul.  Again,  with  more  of  real  meaning  we  say  of  our 
friend,  "  I  love  him;  he  is  my  companion,  my  trusted  friend,  I  love  him  ". 
Yet  we  know  that  love  such  as  this  cannot  be  commanded.  Or  leaving 
behind  the  lower  meanings  of  the  word,  we  apply  it  to  that  range  of  affec- 
tion upon  which  the  home  is  constituted,  the  love  of  husband  for  wife,  of 
father  for  son,  the  love  of  the  mother  for  her  child,  and  by  this  word  we 
cover  all  the  range  of  those  sacred  relationships  which  constitute  the  home 
and  give  unto  life  the  sweetness  and  richness  which  there  is  in  the  home 
we  know.  And  yet,  when  we  strive  to  interpret  these  words  by  these  usages 
of  it,  we  find  that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  derive  from  it  the  significance  of 
the  text.  We  cannot  be  commanded  so  to  love  all  men,  we  cannot  be 
commanded  so  to  love  our  brethren  in  the  Christian  Church.  These  affec- 
tions which  are  the  center  and  bond  of  union  in  the  home,  are  not  the 
range  of  affections  that  are  brought  into  play  in  the  Christian  brotherhood. 


OBEDIENCE  TO  THE  NE  W  COMMANDMENT.         277 

They  cannot  be  commanded,  and  our  Lord  never  laid  that  commandment 
upon  us.  How  then  shall  we  interpret  these  words  but  by  reading  more 
closely,  and  by  comparing  this  word  here  with  those  in  the  parable  of  Jesus 
by  which  He  has  borne  it  in  upon  the  heart  of  humanity?  We  love  our 
neighbor  when  we,  like  the  good  Samaritan,  are  willing  not  to  pass  by 
on  the  other  side  but  to  go  where  he  is,  and  put  the  arm  of  sympathy  under 
his  wounded  head,  and  to  lift  him  in  his  weakness  to  the  bosom  of  our 
strength,  and  to  pour  the  balm  of  comfort  into  his  wounds,  and  to  bear  him  to 
safety  and  shelter.  We  find  that  we  love  our  neighbor  when  thus  we  seek 
his  good, — that  Jesus  does  not  command  for  us  a  passionate  affection,  that 
He  does  not  command  us  to  find  the  man  robbed  and  at  once  feel  towards 
him  as  we  feel  towards  our  brother  in  the  flesh ;  but  that  we  enter  into  his 
life  with  sympathy  and  seek  his  welfare  and  minister  unto  him  in  love.  So 
Jesus  means  in  this  great  word,  "  that  ye  love  one  another  ",  as  He  means 
always  in  the  interpretation  of  that  great  word  to  Israel.  Jesus  means, 
when  He  says  you  should  love  one  another,  "  seek  always  the  welfare  of 
your  brother  ".  Consistently  in  life  and  word,  in  deed  and  thought,  seek 
the  welfare  of  that  brother.  "Ah  ",  you  say,  "  you  have  taken  the  meaning  out 
of  that  great  word,  what  is  there  left  in  it.'"'  Have  I?  Then  you  have 
never  striven  to  live  up  to  that  commandment ;  take  it  home  and  live  up  to 
it  in  Providence  for  one  week,  and  see  if  the  meaning  is  gone  from  it  when 
I  say  that  Jesus  says  we  shall  always  seek  the  welfare  of  our  brother  man. 
This  is  the  commandment  that  Jesus  lays  upon  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  He  utters  the  great  and  fundamental  law  of  redeemed  human 
society. 

But  He  has  given  us  here  the  phrase  that  makes  His  word  the  7ieni 
commandment,  "Love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you".  And  so  saying. 
He  has  given  us  the  type  and  measure  of  the  Christian  obligation.  "As  I 
have  loved  you  ".  How  loved  He  men?  Spiritually  first,  spiritually,  always 
spiritually.  But  you  say,  "  He  fed  the  hungry.  He  clothed  the  naked,  He 
unstopped  the  deaf  ears,  and  He  caused  light  to  shine  in  the  eyes  of  the 
darkened,  He  made  the  lame  to  walk  and  the  dead  to  live;  His  ministry 
was  a  physical  ministry".  Yes,  He  fed  the  hungry,  but  He  said  to  them, 
"  Ye  seek  Me  because  you  ate  of  the  loaves  and  fishes  and  were  full " ; 
"  Labor  not  for  the  meat  which  perisbeth  but  for  the  meat  which  endureth 
unto  life  eternal".  "But  you  are  taking  all  the  kindness  and  sympathy 
out  of  the  gospel  ",  some  one  exclaims.  No,  I  am  not.  God  forbid  that  1 
should  utter  a  word  which  should  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  I  say  unto 
my  brother,  "  Go,  be  ye  clothed  and  fed  "  while  I  turn  about  to  put  on  my 
broadcloth  coat  and  eat  my  dinner  of  roast  beef,  while  he  walks  naked  and 
hungry  !  But  this  is  true  that  in  all  our  ministry  for  the  welfare  of  our 
brethren,  it  is  the  welfare  of  their  lives  that  we  seek  and  not  the  welfare  of 
their  bodies.  You  think  of  him,  not  as  a  beast ;  you  think  of  him  as  a  child  of 
God.  You  seek  constantly  his  welfare,  you  love  to  put  clothes  upon  his  back, 
you  love  to  heal  his  wounds,  you  love  to  make  the  lame  to  leap  and  the  blind 
to  see,  but  you  will  do  this  because  by  so  ministering,  you  serve  his  whole 


278  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

life  and  you  redeem  his  soul.  The  Christian  Church  must  always  assert 
that  her  love  for  men  is  spiritual  as  was  the  love  of  Jesus. 

To  what  point  are  we  to  love  our  neighbor  ?  Up  to  the  point  of  sacri- 
fice. That  is  what  Jesus  did.  "Love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you". 
Seek  always,  consistently,  the  welfare  of  your  brother's  life,  and  seek  it 
until  it  hurts.  That  is  what  Jesus  means,  up  to  the  point  of  sacrifice.  "As  I 
have  loved  you  ",  said  Jesus  when  the  shadow  of  Gethsemane  was  falling 
upon  His  brow,  and  when  there  was  graven  before  Him  in  feature  of  flame, 
the  dread  figure  of  the  cross.  And  by  this  He  teaches  His  Church  that 
they  are  to  love  their  fellowmen.  The  Church  is  to  show  her  love  for 
humanity  by  loving  their  lives,  and  loving  their  lives  to  the  point  of  sacri- 
fice— that  is  the  meaning  given  by  the  new  commandment.  Because  we 
have  divested  it  of  those  associations  of  sentiment  and  of  affection  which 
cluster  around  the  word  in  our  ordinary  usage  of  it,  will  you  not  bear  wit- 
ness with  me  that  we  have  deepened  and  strengthened  its  claim  upon  the 
human  heart,  when  we  have  interpreted  it  to  mean,  "Thou  shalt  consist- 
ently seek  the  welfare  of  thy  brothers's  life  up  to  the  point  of  sacrifice  "  ? 

It  was  a  solemn  moment  when  Jesus  spoke  that  word.  He  reserved 
it  until  the  traitor,  Judas,  had  gone  out,  because  only  faithful  souls  could 
bear  the  blaze  of  the  white  heat  of  that  new  commandment.  It  is  the  solemn 
command  which  Jesus  gives  to  the  Christian  Church  in  every  age.  "  Thou 
shalt  always  seek  the  welfare  of  thy  brother's  life,  his  spiritual  life,  up  to  the 
point  of  sacrifice  ".  It  is  a  claim  that  stands  in  the  world  today,  a  claim 
that  has  in  it  a  divine  compulsion.  "  Thou  shalt  love  one  another  ".  "  That 
ye  love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you  ". 

Oh,  but  you  say  :  "  It  is  limited.  It  was  just  Andrew,  Peter  and  James 
and  John  and  Philip  and  Thomas  and  the  rest  of  them,  that  were  to  love  one 
another.  It  did  not  mean  the  Roman  soldiers  in  the  street.  It  did  not 
mean  the  centurions ;  it  did  not  mean  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  ".  Jesus 
was  speaking  to  His  disciples.  But  with  the  full  light  of  these  twenty  cen- 
turies blazing  in  upon  those  words,  with  Jesus'  own  teaching  by  precept 
and  proverb  as  He  has  interpreted  the  ancient  command  of  Israel,  we 
know  that  wrapped  up  in  that  "you  "was  potentially  the  human  race.  It 
takes  in  all  mankind.  And  who  dares  to  draw  a  circle  of  limitation  around 
the  command  of  Jesus  and  say  we  shall  love  this  one  as  He  loved  us  but 
that  one  is  outside  of  the  Church  and  we  need  not  practice  the  law  towards 
him.  The  scope  of  His  command  was  potentially  universal.  And  in  this 
age  the  Church  must  give  her  allegiance  to  the  universal  command  or  the 
world  will  laugh  her  to  scorn.  Save  as  we  learn  to  love  humanity  as  Jesus 
loved  us,  spiritually,  sacrificially,  we  deny  the  word  of  our  Lord.  Jesus 
knew  human  nature.  He  knew  that  He  could  not  command  His  disciples  to 
have  affection  for  the  stranger,  for  the  foreigner,  the  man  of  different  tem- 
perament, but  He  knew  He  could  command  them  always  to  seek  consistently 
his  welfare.  I  cannot  command  you  to  love  the  man  who  lives  across  the 
street  from  you.  His  education  and  training  are  different  from  yours.  All 
his  interests  and  sympathies  are  different  from  yours.    I  may  not  ask  you  to 


OBEDIENCE  TO  THE  NE  W  COMMANDMENT.         27«> 

love  him  as  you  love  your  brother,  but  I  can  ask  you  to  seek  always,  con- 
sistently, the  welfare  of  that  man's  life,  even  if  it  hurts  you  to  do  it.  And 
you  can  do  it,  and  you  know  that  you  can  do  it.  He  does  not  dress  as  you 
would  like  him  to  dress ;  he  is  more  or  less  ostentatious  in  his  manner  of 
living,  but  if  you  always  consistently  seek  his  welfare  you  will  find  value  in 
that  man's  life.  You  will  redeem  him.  You  may  not  put  a  limit  around 
the  command  of  Jesus  when  you  interpret  Him  fairly;  for  He  includes 
within  the  scope  of  it  all  men.  And  those  people  who  to  you  are  unpleasant 
and  disagreeable  are  bound  up  in  it.  And  if  your  allegiance  to  Him  is  from 
the  heart,  you  will  recognize  His  claim,  you  will  see  their  welfare,  and  you 
will  scorn  to  do  the  thing  which  would  injure  them. 

What  is  the  design?  Why  did  He  give  it  to  His  disciples?  It  was  a 
strategic,  apologetic  and  military  command.  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know 
that  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to  another  ".  This  is  the  great 
apologetic  of  the  Christian  Church.  This  is  the  great  weapon  of  the 
Church's  warfare.  Are  we  asking  wherewith  shall  the  Church  go  forth  ? 
Are  we  reading  in  the  papers  of  great  congregations  of  men  who  cheer  the 
name  of  Jesus  and  hiss  at  the  mention  of  the  Christian  Church  ?  Are  we 
talking  about  the  unchurched  masses  who  live  in  our  cities  and  are  scattered 
upon  our  plains,  and  who  know  the  name  of  Jesus  to  bow  in  reverence,  but 
who  know  the  Church  only  to  hiss  at  it?  And  are  we  asking  wherewith  shall 
we  meet  these  men  and  win  them  to  the  Church  ?  Jesus  tells  us  in  John  1 3  : 
35  — "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one 
to  another  ".  If  you  love,  if  you  seek  consistently  their  welfare  in  life  to  the 
point  of  sacrifice,  they  will  know  that  you  are  His  disciples  indeed.  It  will 
be  evidence  sufficient  when  they  find  you  at  the  point  of  sacrifice  seeking 
their  welfare  and  they  will  be  found  within  the  Church  of  Christ.  Why  are 
you  in  the  Christian  Church  ?  Not  because  some  eloquent  man  set  forth  the 
claims  of  the  Scriptures.  These  are  not  those  who  won  you  to  the  Christian 
Church,  but  because  you  knew  a  life  that  loved  some  one,  that  sought  always 
another's  welfare.  Some  man  who  stood  in  the  community  a  commanding 
figure,  the  law  of  whose  life  was  integrity  and  in  whose  lips  was  the  law  of 
kindness,  who  sought  always  the  welfare  of  his  brother,  who  scorned  to 
take  a  dividend  on  watered  stock,  if  he  knew  that  it  was  coined  out  of  the 
tears  and  blood  of  his  brethren  ;  who  scorned  to  speak  a  word  harshly  to 
the  man  who  served  him  because  he  knew  it  would  injure  his  spirit; 
such  a  man  you  knew  always  and  consistently  sought  the  welfare  of  his 
brother.  It  was  enough  for  you.  You  said  of  him,  "  He  follows  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  and  is  obedient  to  His  commands".  Or  it  was  some  sainted 
woman  whose  life  and  ministry  bore  witness  to  the  sacrifices  with  which 
her  life  was  poured  out  for  others.  She  won  you  into  the  Christian  Church. 
This  is  Jesus'  plan  of  campaign.  Do  you  know  how  to  take  Providence  for 
Christ?  Love.  Do  I  know  how  to  take  Hartford  for  Christ?  This  is  His 
pledge.  This  is  His  way  of  evangelism.  When  the  Christian  Church  fully 
lives  out  the  new  commandment,  then  all  men  shall  know  that  the  Church  is 
the  Church  of  Jesus,  and  all  men  shall  be  found  within  her  walls  in  worship, 
and  go  forth  from  her  portals  in  service,  for  He  Himself  hath  promised  it. 


*  MYSTiaSM  IN  THE  FOURTEENTH,  RFTEENTH  AND  SIXTEENTH 
CHAPTERS  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL. 

by  rev.  alfred  willialvts  anthony,   d.  d., 

Professor  of  New  Testament  Exegesis  and  Criticism  in  Cobb  Divinity 
School,  Lewiston,  Maine. 

Mysticism  is  a  term  which  has  been  used  to  cover,  but  not  to  hide,  a 
multitude  of  views  and  vagaries.  Quietism,  Pietism  and  Gichtelianism, — 
strange  expressions  of  religious  feeling  now  well  nigh  forgotten — are 
arrayed  under  the  term ;  the  Beghards,  the  Beguins,  the  Euchites,  the 
Hesychasts,  the  Illuminati  and  the  Omphalopsychites,  who  gazed  in 
abstraction  at  their  navels,  have  borne  the  designation.  Good  men,  too, 
have  been  classified  as  mystics,  men  like  Erigena,  Eckhart,  John  Tauler, 
Thomas  a  Kempis  and  George  Fox,  the  father  of  the  Quakers,  disciples  of 
the  "  Inner  Light."  Emerson  in  writing  upon  representative  men,  took 
Swedenborg  as  the  type  of  the  mystic.  The  transcendentalists,  even  Carlyle 
and  Emerson,  have  been  called  mystics.     Many  of  our  poets  are  mystics. 

What  is  mysticism?  A  dictionary  definition  gives  it  as  "Any  mode  of 
thought,  or  phase  of  intellectual  life,  in  which  reliance  is  placed  upon  a 
spiritual  illumination  believed  to  transcend  the  ordinary  powers  of  the 
understanding".  The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  declares,  "Mysticism  is  a 
phase  of  thought,  or  rather  peihaps  of  feeling,  which  from  its  very  nature  is 
hardly  susceptible  of  exact  definition.  It  appears  in  connection  with  the 
endeavor  of  the  human  mind  to  grasp  the  divine  essence  or  the  ultimate 
reality  of  things,  and  to  enjoy  the  blessedness  of  actual  communication  with 
the  Highest ". 

This  writer  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  Professor  Andrew  Seth  of 
University  College,  Cardiff,  Wales,  is  not  wholly  consistent  with  himself, 
although  he  consistently  describes  mysticism.  In  "one  column  he  says, 
"  The  type  of  character  to  which  mysticism  is  allied  is  passive,  sensuous 
and  feminine,  rather  than  independent,  masculine  and  ethically  vigorous  ". 
In  another  column  he  states,  "  When  a  religion  begins  to  ossify  into  a  sys- 
tem of  formulas  and  observances,  those  who  protest  in  the  name  of  heart- 
religion  are  not  unfrequently  known  by  the  name  of  mystics  ",  and  again, 
"  Mysticism  instinctively  recedes  from  formulas  that  have  become  stereo- 
typed and  mechanical  into  the  perennially  fresh  experience  of  the 
individual ".  So  mysticism  may  be  stigmatized  with  epithets  which  are 
uncomplimentary,  and  at  the  same  time  be  extolled  as  the  reforming  spirit 
which  is  independent,  pervasive  and  virile. 


* 


*  Delivered  at  the  Fifth  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  P.aptist  Church,  February  lo,  1904. 

280 


MYSTICISM  IN  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.  281 

William  Ralph  Inge,  of  Oxford,  England,  who  delivered  the  Bampton 
Lectures  for  1899  on  Christian  Mysticism,  uses  expressions  like  the  follow- 
ing in  descriptive  definitions  of  mysticism  :  it  is  "  the  dim  consciousness  of 
the  beyond,  which  is  part  of  our  nature  as  human  beings "  ;  "a  higher 
instinct,  perhaps  an  anticipation  of  the  evolutionary  process";  "an  exten- 
sion of  the  frontier  of  consciousness  "  ;  "  the  voice  of  (iod  speaking  to  us  ". 

I  would  define  mysticism  as  the  direct  cognition  of  spiritual  verities 
without  the  intervention  of  the  senses  on  the  one  hand,  or  of  logical  pro- 
cesses of  reasoning  on  the  other. 

Can  God  reveal  Himself  directly  to  the  human  soul  ?  Can  man  enter 
into  immediate  communication  with  the  Divine,  unaided  by  external  forms 
and  symbols  ? 

It  is  not  my  task  to  attempt  now  to  answer  this  inquiry  either  on  the 
side  of  psychology  or  of  philosophy,  but  by  simple  exegetical  methods  to 
show  the  teaching  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  in  three  of  the  five  chapters  which 
Canon  Bernard  considers  contain  the  central  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ, 
("The  Central  Teaching  of  Jesus  Christ",  by  Canon  T.  D.  Bernard,  Mac- 
millan,  1892.) 

These  chapters,  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth  and  sixteenth,  contain  the 
Johannine  account  of  the  final  discourse  of  our  Lord  to  His  apostles.  The 
words  are  spoken  in  the  upper  room  on  the  last  Thursday  evening,  after  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  the  hour  probably  is  tending  well 
toward  midnight. 

Those  apostles  still  entertained  the  sensuous  conception  of  the  Mes- 
siah's kingdom.  They  thought  of  the  Messiah  as  destined  to  rule  a  temporal 
kingdom,  as  Kings  David  and  Solomon  had  ruled,  though  now  with  greater 
splendor  and  wider  sway.  Two  of  them,— the  two  who  should  have  under- 
stood Him  best, — had  come  with  their  mother  making  request  for  political 
honors,  that  one  might  sit  on  His  right  hand  and  the  other  on  His  left  in 
His  kingdom ;  they  had  disputed  and  quarreled,  even  in  this  last  meal, 
respecting  place  and  preferment,  and  the  Master,  to  teach  them  a  lesson  in 
humility  and  service,  had  girded  His  loins  with  a  towel  and  had  washed 
their  feet.  But  yet  they  did  not  learn,  for,  two  score  days  later,  they  ask, 
"  Lord,  dost  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to  Isreal  ? "  thinking 
still  of  a  political  reign, — this  on  the  eve  of  the  ascension. 

But  now,  in  that  upper  room.  He  gives  them  sad  forebodings;  He 
speaks  of  treachery  and  betrayal:  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  one 
of  you  shall  betray  Me"  (13:21);  He  declares  His  departure  as  at  hand, 
"  Little  children,  yet  a  little  while  am  I  with  you ;  ye  shall  seek  Me,  and  as 
I  said  to  the  Jews,  where  I  go  ye  cannot  come,  I  say  also  to  you  now  " 
(13:33);  and  He  predicts  the  denial  of  Peter,  His  staunchest  friend  and 
their  brave  leader,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  to  thee,  the  cock  shall  not  crow 
until  thou  hast  denied  Me  three  times  "  (13  :  38). 

These  three  declarations,  of  betrayal,  of  departure,  and  of  denial,  dash 
their  expectations  of  Messianic  triumph  in  a  physical  kingdom,— dash  them 
for  the  time  being.     If   He  is  treacherously  betrayed,  if  He  leaves  them 


282  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

alone  and  they  cannot  follow,  if  Peter,  foremost  of  them  all,  is  soon  to 
repudiate  Him,  what  can  they  hope  ?  what  can  they  expect  ?  Their  hearts 
are  heavy, — their  hearts  are  troubled,  filled  with  sorrow  and  consternation. 
It  is  against  such  a  background  that  the  mystic  utterances  of  these  chapters 
are  spoken. 

"  Do  not  let  your  heart  be  troubled  ",  said  the  Master,  "ye  are  believ- 
ing upon  God,  upon  Me  also  believe"  (14:1).  The  Greek  verbs  for 
"  believe  "  here  are  alike ;  both  may  be  in  the  indicative  mode,  both  may  be 
in  the  imperative  mode,  or  one  may  be  indicative  and  the  other  imperative  ; 
so  far  as  form  is  concerned  there  is  nothing  decisive ;  but,  since  Jews 
believed  devoutly  in  Jehovah, — and  they  were  Jews,  pre-eminent  m  relig- 
ious opportunities, — we  doubtless  are  correct  in  taking  the  former  as  a 
statement  of  fact,  and  the  latter  as  a  corrective  of  their  trouble  and  dismay : 
"  Ye  are  believing  upon  God ;  believe  also  upon  Me  ",  for  ye  have  as  good 
reason  to  rest  your  confidence  upon  Me  as  upon  God,  My  Father.  Link 
the  invisible  with  the  visible ;  link  the  visible  with  the  invisible.  In  seeing 
Me  you  see  God ;  and  when  I  go,  you  then  may  have  as  calm  confidence  in 
Me  as  you  have  in  the  invisible  God ;  God,  the  Father,  and  I  are  one. 

This  is  obviously  His  thought  a  little  further  on,  when  He  says,  "If  ye 
had  known  Me,  ye  would  have  known  My  Father  also,  and  from  henceforth 
ye  have  known  Him  and  have  seen  Him  "  (v.  7).  And  Philip's  protest  of 
dull  understanding  brought  out  the  plainer  answer,  "  Show  us  the  Father 
and  it  sufficeth  us  " ;  "  So  long  a  time  have  I  been  with  you  and  hast  thou 
not  known  Me,  Philip  "i  He  who  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father ;  how 
sayest  thou,  show  us  the  Father  ?  Dost  thou  not  believe  that  I  am  in  the 
Father  and  the  Father  in  Me  ?  "  (vs.  8-10). 

To  recognize  in  the  visible  the  invisible  is  essentially  a  mystic  act.  To 
see  God  in  nature,  in  man,  in  Christ,  is  essentially  mysticism ;  it  is  the 
pushing  of  consciousness  through  the  sensuous  to  the  supersensuous ;  it  is 
more  than  experience,  it  is  discernment ;  it  is  more  than  philosophy,  it  is 
vision.     The  incarnation  really  requires  mysticism. 

Though  I  am  betrayed,  yet  am  I  unharmed ;  though  I  go  away,  yet  do 
I  remain  ;  though  you  deny  Me,  yet  am  I  unchanged ; — these  are  the  assur- 
ances of  the  Christ. 

"I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you  *  *  *  i  will  come  again  *  *  *  " 
(vs.  2,  3).  Great  errors  have  been  associated  with  this  promise  to  return. 
Men  have  looked  for  a  physical  advent,  and  have  set  days  and  hours  for  the' 
fleshly  Jesus  to  appear.  But  it  is  a  mystic  act ;  the  promise  is  for  fulfilment 
in  a  spiritual  sense.  We  have  Pauline  warrant  for  asserting  that  the  things 
of  the  spirit  must  be  spiritually  discerned.  He  went  in  the  flesh ;  He 
returned  in  the  spirit.  It  was  expedient  for  the  flesh  (16:7)  to  disappear, 
that  they  might  forget  the  mere  flesh  and  receive  the  spirit. 

"  I  will  ask  the  Father  and  He  will  give  you  another  Comforter,  that 
He  may  be  with  you  forever  *  *  *  i  will  not  leave  you  as  orphans,  I  am 
coming  to  you  "  (vs.  16-18).  That  the  Paraclete  is  spoken  of  as  another 
Comforter  plainly  implies  that  Jesus,  while  in  the  flesh,  was  the  first  Com- 


MYSTICISM  IN  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.  283 

forter  and  that  the  Paraclete  who  came  was  to  continue  the  functions  of 
Jesus,  though  invisible  now,  as  spirit. 

"A  little  while  ", — this  caused  perplexity  because  they  did  not  under- 
stand it  in  the  mystic  sense, — "  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  world  beholdeth 
Me  no  more  ;  but  ye  behold  Me :  because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also.  In  that 
day  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  ye  in  Me,  and  I  in  you" 
(vs.  19,  20) ; — a  mystic  union.  "  He  that  hath  My  commandments,  and 
keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  Me  and  he  that  loveth  Me  shall  be  loved 
of  My  Father,  and  I  will  love  him,  and  will  manifest  Myself  unto  him  " 
(v.  21); — a  mystic  union  and  mystic  acts.  Against  this  Judas  (not  Iscariot) 
expostulated  as  unintelligible,  "  Lord,  what  is  come  to  pass,  that  Thou  wilt 
manifest  Thyself  unto  us  and  not  unto  the  world  ?  "  (v.  22.)  In  the  reply  of 
Jesus  are  three  mystic  acts,  love,  obedience,  union : — "  If  any  man  love  Me, 
he  will  keep  My  word :  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come 
unto  him,  and  make  Our  abode  with  him  "  (v.  23).  Love  is  the  projection 
of  self  toward  another  being;  obedience  is  the  surrender  of  self  to  another 
being;  and  through  the  outgoing  to,  and  the  incoming  of,  another  being  a 
mystic  union  results. 

To  the  apostles,  specific  mystic  assurances  were  given.  The  Master 
went  in  order  to  prepare  abodes  for  them.  We  have  read  the  text,  "  In  My 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions"  (14:  2).  The  margin  of  the  American 
R.  V.  gives  "abiding  places"  for  mansions.  I  think  the  clause  well 
rendered  by  the  paraphrase,  "where  My  Father  lives,  there  are  many  abodes 
for  you."  Usually  we  have  supposed  this  referred  to  heaven  and  glorious 
habitations  therein.  But  this  word  for  mansions  {monai)  is  the  same  word 
rendered  "  abode"  in  v.  23  of  the  same  chapter:  "We  will  come  and  make 
our  abode  with  Him  ".  It  is  used  only  these  two  times  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Its  root  is  the  same  as  the  root  of  the  verb  used  so  many  times  in 
the  15th  chapter,  "abide"  {meno),  "except  the  branch  abide  in  the  vine; 
abide  in  Me  ",  etc.  Where  My  Father  is,  there  are  abiding  places  for  you. 
This  is  not  the  promise  of  a  far  distant  future  glory  but  of  present  fellow- 
ship and  safety  for  the  immediate  future  and  for  all  the  hereafter.  While  I 
go  in  the  flesh,  yet  I  but  the  better  prepare  for  your  spiritual  safety  in  union 
with  the  divine. 

To  the  apostles  greater  works  are  promised  (14:  12)  because  of  this 
mystic  union;  to  them  the  inseparable  divine  presence  is  assured;  God 
comes  and  abides;  the  Comforter  will  abide;  they  may  abide  in  Christ, 
drawing  sustenance  and  strength  from  Him  as  a  branch  depends  upon  its 
vine.  The  ^verb  to  abide  occurs  ten  times  in  the  first  ten  verses  of  the 
fifteenth  chapter.  Though  He  goes  away,  yet  union  with  Him  is  still  possi- 
ble.    That  is  the  emphasis  of  these  chapters. 

This  teaching  has  a  bearing  on  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  set  forth  and 
implied  in  these  chapters.  The  Holy  Spirit  seems  to  be  the  name  of  God 
in  this  mystic  relation.  God  is  in  Jesus;  note  such  passages  as  these: 
"Believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  Me"  (14:  i);  "he  that  hath  seen  Me  hath 
seen  the  Father"  (14:  9);  "the  Father,  who  abideth  in  Me,  He  doeth  the 


284  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

works"  (14:  10);  "believe  Me  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in 
Me  "  (14 :  1 1).  The  Father  and  the  Son  are  with  the  disciples.  See  passages 
like  these:  "In  that  day  (this  little  while)  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  My 
Father  and  ye  are  in  Me  and  I  in  you"  (14:  20);  "if  any  one  love  Me,  he 
will  keep  My  word,  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come  to  him 
and  make  Our  abode  with  him  (14:  23).  The  Holy  Spirit  is  with  the 
disciples;  Jesus  said,  "I  will  send  Him"  (15:  26),  and  the  Father  would 
send  Him  (14 :  26) ;  He  will  lead  into  all  truth  (16 :  13) ;  He  will  convict  the 
world  of  sin,  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment  (16:  8-1 1).  The  Father,  the 
Son  and  the  Spirit  abide  in  union  with  the  disciples. 

Let  us  recapitulate  the  thought  of  the  Master  which  undergird  these 
chapters : 

1.  The  betrayal  is  at  hand.  The  divine  can  be  delayed,  but  not 
thwarted,  because  the  divine  does  not  depend  upon  the  flesh. 

2.  Peter  may  deny,  yet  this  is  but  an  episode,  not  the  conclusion. 

3.  The  Master  will  leave  them, — yes,  in  the  flesh;  but  even  more  fully 
does  He  remain  with  them  in  the  spirit.  It  was  expedient  for  Him  to  go,  in 
order  that  they  might  the  more  clearly  see  Him,  not  as  king,  nor  priest,  nor 
prophet,  not  as  the  Messiah  long  expected,  but  as  God,  immortal,  eternal, 
more  than  earth  can  contain,  more  than  flesh  can  reveal  or  the  senses  per- 
ceive. There  was  no  separation ;  after  the  garden,  and  after  the  trial,  after 
Calvary  there  was  the  opportunity  for  the  closer,  the  real  union  with  Him. 

Such  appears  to  be  the  main  import  of  these  three  chapters.  Union  in 
a  spiritual  sense  is  the  key  word. 

We  may  well  inquire  now,  whether  this  is  the  mysticism  of  Jesus  or  of 
John.  Has  the  subjective  element  of  this  Fourth  Gospel  so  thrust  itself 
forward  in  these  chapters  as  to  color  completely  the  phrasing  and  the  con- 
ception and  consequently  distort  the  teaching  of  Jesus?  Is  this  the  mind  of 
Jesus  which  we  here  find?  or  is  it  the  thought  of  the  author?  Has  the 
writer  stepped  into  the  Teacher's  place  ?  Does  he  lay  words  on  the  Master's 
lips? 

Three  simple  answers  may  be  given : 

1.  The  description  of  Thomas  and  Philip  in  these  chapters  accords 
with  all  other  descriptions  given  of  them ;  and  it  is  but  fair  to  assume  that 
if  fidelity  and  consistency  exist  in  the  lesser  details  they  exist  also  in  the 
main  features  of  the  narrative. 

The  Thomas  who  here  says,  "  how  can  we  know  the  way  ? "  is  as  slow  of 
discernment  as  the  Thomas,  who,  in  the  synoptic  narrative,  must  needs  put 
his  finger  in  the  nail-prints  and  thrust  his  hand  into  the  wounded  side. 

The  Philip  who  here  exclaims,  "  show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufificeth  us  ", 
is  the  man  of  practical  affairs,  who  sees  material  things,  the  man  unto  whom 
certain  Greeks,  seeking  Jesus,  found  readiest  access,  and  the  man  who,  off- 
hand, could  quickly  compute  the  amount  of  bread  and  the  cost  for  feeding 
five  thousand  people. 

2.  Such  mysticism  as  we  find  here  is  present  also  in  substance  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels.     The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  though  largely  practical,  yet 


MYSTICISM  IN  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.  285 

is  permeated  with  mystical  elements.  The  beatitudes  have  such  elements 
as  this:  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God".  The 
great  judgment,  recorded  by  Matthew,  recognizes  a  mystical  service,  which, 
while  not  at  the  time  apprehended,  is  nevertheless  real:  "Inasmuch  as  ye 
have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these.  My  brethren,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  Me  ". 

"  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world",  is 
the  promise  of  the  Great  Commission, — the  assurance  of  a  mystic  union, 
repeated  in  the  words,  "where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  My 
name,  there  am  I  in  their  midst". 

In  the  synoptic  narrative  Jesus  repeatedly  exhorts  him  that  hath  an  ear 
to  hear,  to  hear, — that  is,  to  hear  more  than  is  said  in  mere  phrase,  to  under- 
stand the  principle  and  to  enter  into  the  spiritual  sense. 

3.  In  all  the  Gospels,  the  immediate  presence  of  God  is  the  special 
message  of  Jesus.  He  is  our  Father;  He  cares  for  us;  He  knows  even  the 
hairs  of  our  heads;  not  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground  without  His  notice, 
and  His  solicitude  for  us  is  even  greater  and  more  constant. 

Really,  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  like  every  religion  which  is  more 
than  mere  casuistry  or  ethics,  has  mystical  aspects  and  elements.  It  points 
to  the  unseen  as  real;  insists  upon  a  spiritual  presence,  unknown  through 
the  senses,  unperceived  by  reason  alone. 

A  mysticism,  such  as  we  find  in  these  three  chapters,  is  the  Christian 
mysticism  especially  suited  to  the  needs  of  our  day.  A  few  considerations 
will  make  this  apparent : 

This  is  pre-eminently  a  commercial  age,  when  materialism,  not  as  a  phil- 
osophy— that  is  past — but  as  a  method  of  life,  is  dominant.  To  offset  it, 
stress  must  be  laid  upon  the  unseen  as  the  most  real  and  the  most  valuable. 
Transitions  in  progress  today  in  church  and  theolog>'  tend  toward  and 
demand  a  rational  mysticism.  The  doctrine  of  inspiration  in  its  dynamic 
form  now  becoming  prevalent,  thinks  not  of  impart  ation  from  external 
sources  so  much  of  an  internal  illumination  which  opens  inward  vision. 
According  to  the  modern  view,  now  widely  prevailing,  the  Bible  is  regarded 
as  a  record  of  what  man  has  discovered  respecting  God, — a  record  of  how 
God  has  touched  man  and  of  man's  comprehension  of  that  contact, — mystic 
relations  more  or  less  perfect  of  which  man  has  been  in  varying  degrees 
conscious.  The  distinction  between  things  sacred  and  things  secular  tends 
to  vanish  because  of  a  mysticism  extending  amongst  men.  To  the  Jew, 
who  saw  little  more  than  things  of  sense,  one  place  (the  temple),  one  day 
(the  Sabbath)  and  one  portion  of  possessions  (a  tithe)  were  holy.  Now  we 
are  recognizing  all  places,  all  times  and  all  possessions  as  essentially  holy, 
because  of  the  invisible,  mystically  recognized.  Men  are  beginning  to 
learn  that  God  is  everlasting  and  that  fellowship  with  Him  and  service  unto 
Him  should  be  continuous.  Indeed  we  are  beginning  fairly  to  accept  the 
doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  God:  "  He  is  not  far  from  every  one  of  us ; 
in  Him  we  live,  move  and  have  our  being";  He  occupies  all  space,  is  ever- 
present,  and  is  excluded  not  even  from  His  finite  creatures. 


286  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Perhaps  some  of  these  tendencies  might  lead  one  legitimately,  to  philo- 
sophical monism  ;  but  this  is  certain  :  a  recognition  of  the  validity  of  mysti- 
cism, if  we  keep  ourselves  back  from  reliance  upon  mere  feeling  and  the 
weird  imaginings  of  disordered  brains,  may  prompt  us  to  push  the  frontier 
of  consciousness  further  out  into  the  infinite,  to  keep  the  heart  holy  in  order 
that  we  may  discover  therein  the  image  of  its  divine  maker,  to  see  in  the 
visible  the  invisible,  and  in  the  vision  find  grounds  for  confidence  and  hope, 
even  when  misfortune  and  disaster  impend  or  overwhelm  us.  If  we  are  in 
fellowship  with  the  divine,  we  may  breathe  the  pure  atmosphere  of  heaven, 
even  while  still  on  the  earth. 

"As,  in  life's  best  hours,  we  hear 
By  the  spirit's  finer  ear 
His  low  voice  within  us,  thus 
The  All-Father  heareth  us; 
And  His  holy  ear  we  pain 
With  our  noisy  words  and  vain. 
Not  for  Him  our  violence 
Storming  at  the  gates  of  sense, 
His  the  primal  language,  His 
The  eternal  silences". 

—  Whittier,  "  The  Prayer  of  Agassiz". 


•  JESUS  THE  REVELATION  OF  THE  FATHER. 

(St.  John  14  :6-i  i.) 

hv    «1-:v.   hknry  c.  s;hki,i>on,  s^.  t.   i)., 

Professor    ok   Systematic  Theulouv    in    Boston    University   vSciio<ji.  of 
Theology,  Boston,   Mass. 

Stress  upon  revelation,  or  the  disclosure  of  truth,  is  especially  charac- 
teristic of  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  Epistles,  which,  together,  form  the 
proper  Johannine  group  of  writings.  Revelation  is  rated  therein  not  merely 
as  a  means  of  intellectual  illumination,  but  still  more  as  a  means  of  moral 
and  spiritual  transformation.  The  office  of  Jesus  as  a  revealer  is  empha- 
sized, and  a  large  part  of  His  redemptive  agency  is  located  in  His  imparta- 
tion  of  truth.  He  is  described  as  the  true  light  which  lighteth  every  man, 
the  light  of  the  world,  in  following  whom  men  shall  escape  from  darkness 
and  have  the  light  of  life  (i  19;  8  :  12).  He  is  the  manifested  truth  and  the 
manifested  life  (14:6;  i  John  i  :  2).  The  true  knowledge,  in  which  lies  eter- 
nal life,  is  mediated  through  Him  (17  .-3,  4;  1:18;  14:9).  His  economy  is 
an  economy  of  truth  as  well  as  of  grace  (i  :  17).  To  this  end  came  He  into 
the  world,  that  He  might  bear  witness  to  the  truth  (18:37).  He  is  a  bearer 
of  life  as  a  messenger  of  truth  ;  His  words  are  words  of  eternal  life  (6:68)." 
While  His  flesh  is  described  as  the  bread  given  for  the  life  of  the  world, 
the  explanation  is  added  :  "  It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  ;  the  flesh  profit- 
eth  nothing;  the  words  I  have  spoken  unto  you  they  are  spirit  and  are  life"^ 
(6:63).  The  message  of  truth  is  thus  identified  with  the  meat  which  the 
Son  of  Man  giveth  and  which  abideth  unto  eternal  life  (6 :  27).  A  like 
efficacy  is  assigned  to  His  message  in  the  declaration  to  the  disciples : 
"Already  ye  are  clean  through  the  word  which  I  have  spoken  unto  you  " 
(i  5  : 3).  He  cleanses  by  the  virtue  of  His  word.  And  this  office  of  a  saving 
disclosure  of  truth  is  not  confined  within  the  limits  of  His  earthly  life. 
The  Spirit  sent  in  His  name  has  the  work  of  vitalizing  in  men's  souls  the 
revelation  given  in  and  through  Him.  The  specific  function  of  the  Com- 
forter is  to  take  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  show  them  unto  men  (16  :  7-15). 
Thus  a  mighty  stress  falls  upon  the  element  of  revelation.  Doubtless  it 
was  not  in  the  mind  of  John  to  ignore  the  element  of  atonement,  the  worth 
of  the  supreme  sacrifv  e  of  Christ  as  a  fundamental  and  conditioning  factor 
in  the  economy  of  grace.  In  referring  to  Jesus  as  the  Lamb  of  (iod,  and 
in  speaking  of  Him  as  dying  for  the  people,  he  gives  expression  in  his  Gos- 
pel to  that  element.     Even  more  explicitly  he  refers  to  it  in  the  Epistle  in 


•Delivered  at  the  Seventh  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Congregational  Church,   April   13,   1904. 

287 


288  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

naming  Jesus  Christ  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  Still,  the 
more  frequent  reference  is  to  the  transcendent  agency  of  Christ  in  making 
known  the  truth.     With  full  warrant,  we  may  say  that,  according  to  the 

*^  Johannine  representation,  Christ  came  into  the  world  as  a  truth-radiating 
personality,  and  fulfilled  in  large  part  His  saving  office  as  a  bearer  and 
impersonation  of  the  truth. 

With  logical  propriety,  John  makes  the  summit  of  the  revealing  work 
of  Jesus  to  consist  in  the  disclosure  of  the  infinite  Father.  As  the  only- 
begotten  Son,  dwelling  in  the  paternal  bosom,  and  dwelling  also  in  the 
visible  flesh.  He  declares  the  unseen  Father  and  makes  Him  known  by  a 
superlative  and  authentic  message  (i  :  14,  18).  By  the  work  accomplished 
in  His  earthly  vocation  He  glorifies  the  Father  (17:4).  He  is  the  way  to 
the  Father,  the  sole  means  of  true  access  to  inner  and  saving  fellowship 
with  Him  (14:6,13,23).  So  fully  does  He  reveal  the  Father  that  He  is 
qualified  to  say,  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father"  (15:9; 
12:45). 

The  character  and  activities  through  which  Jesus  furnishes  the  full 
revelation  of  the  Father,  though  not  discussed  in  the  Johannine  writings 
after  the  manner  of  a  dogmatic  treatise,  are  intimated  quite  positively  and 

\  fully.  First  of  all  under  this  category  is  to  be  placed  the  holy  humanity  of 
Jesus.  While  John,  it  is  true,  does  not  assert  in  so  many  words  that  Jesus 
possessed  complete  manhood,  he  affords  ground  for  inferring  that  he  recog- 
nized this  truth.  He  assigns  to  the  Master  the  full  complement  of  sensibil-> 
ities,  affections  and  experiences  which  belong  to  the  proper  human  subject. 
He  declares  explicitly  that  He  came  in  the  flesh,  and  denounces  the  oppo- 
site opinion  as  the  warped  and  wicked  contention  of  antichrist.  "  The 
Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us  "  (i  :  14).  "  Every  spirit  that  con- 
fesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God,  and  every  spirit 
which  confesseth  not  Jesus  is  not  of  God  "  (i  John  4  :  2,  3).  "  Many  deceiv- 
ers are  gone  forth  into  the  world,  even  they  that  confess  not  that  Jesus 
Christ  Cometh  in  the  flesh.  This  is  the  deceiver  and  the  antichrist " 
(2  John  7).  Affirmations  of  this  order,  it  is  to  be  granted,  are  not  distinct 
assertions  of  the  complete  manhood  of  Jesus,  but  they  point  in  that  direc- 
tion. For,  in  the  dialect  of  the  writer,  "  flesh  "  is  capable  of  a  larger  refer- 
ence than  to  the  mere  body.  In  at  least  one  instance  it  is  used  where  the 
term  ttiefi  might  have  been  employed  (17  :  2).  There  is  a  suggestion,  there- 
fore, that  in  John's  thought  the  incarnation,  or  the  coming  in  the  flesh,  may 
have  been  understood  to  imply  the  assumption  of  manhood  in  its  entirety. 
And  this  suggestion  is  confirmed  by  the  application  to  Jesus  of  the  designa- 
tion "  Son  of  Man"  (5  :  27  ;  6:27,  62).  Whatever  may  be  the  primary  or-- 
foremost  association  of  this  term,  it  would  not  naturally  have  been  applied 
to  a  personality  that  was  not  conceived  to  be  genuinely  implicated  in  the 
race  or  truly  participant  of  human  nature. 

That  the  humanity  in  Jesus  was  perfectly  pure  and  guiltless  was  evi- 
dently the  staunch  conviction  of  John.  He  represents  Him  as  claiming  to 
be  entirely  void  of  unrighteousness  and  as  doing  always  the  things  pleasing 


/ESUS  THE  REVELATION  OE  THE  EATHEK.  289 

to  the  Father  (7  :  18 ;  8 :  29).  Moreover,  he  pens  the  unqualified  declaration : 
"Ye  know  that  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  sins;  and  in  Him  is  no  sin  " 
(i  John,  3:  5).  With  John,  as  with  the  other  New  Testament  writers,  the 
complete  sinlessness  of  Jesus  was  the  axiom  prefixed  to  the  whole  doctrine 
of  salvation. 

Now  an  exceptional  humanity  like  this  is  fitted  to  be  in  an  exceptional 
sense  a  mirror  of  the  divine.  It  reflects  the  higher  realities  as  the  calm, 
clear  water  takes  the  image  of  the  sky.  In  the  unsullied  soul  of  Jesus,  there 
was  opportunity  for  divine  thought,  will,  purpose  and  disposition  to  be 
pictured  in  authentic  colors.  And  the  demand  for  this  pure  medium  is  not 
to  be  regarded  as  nullified  by  any  transcendent  factor  in  the  incarnate  Lord. 
As  the  divine  thought  came  to  expression  from  the  lips  of  a  prophet  only 
through  the  medium  of  his  psychical  nature  and  activity,  so  in  Christ,  any 
content  from  the  timeless  sphere  of  divine  thought  and  life  may  be  supposed 
to  have  gained  the  forms  of  human  conception  and  speech  only  by  being 
mediated  through  His  human  soul.  The  purity  of  this  finite  medium  must 
therefore  be  .counted,  as  well  on  the  catholic  as  on  the  humanitarian  con- 
ception of  His  person,  a  prime  condition  of  an  authentic  revelation  of  the 
divine.  The  holiness  of  the  man  Jesus  must  be  reckoned  a  condition  of  the 
perfect  manifestation  of  the  Father  in  and  through  Him.  John  may  not 
have  directly  enforced  this  point  of  view ;  but  he  provides  for  it  in  so  far 
as  he  postulates  the  humanity  of  Jesus,  since  he  profoundly  emphasizes  the 
intrinsic  connection  between  spiritual  enlightenment  and  holy  character. 
No  writer  has  ever  surpassed  him  in  the  intense  expression  of  the  conviction 
that  the  seeing  faculty  is  with  love  and  righteousness,  while  darkness  is  the 
inevitable  legacy  of  hatred  and  sin. 

Whatever  consideration  may  have  been  given  to  the  holy  humanity  of 
Jesus  as  a  medium  of  divine  revelation  by  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 
and  the  related  Epistles,  that  consideration  by  no  means  exhausted  his  con- 
templation of  the  qualifications  of  Jesus  to  make  known  the  Father.  He 
regarded  his  Lord  as  vastly  transcending  in  nature  and  essential  relations 
the  common  human  scale,  and  estimated  his  competency  to  reveal  the 
Father  in  the  light  of  this  transcendence.  In  a  variety  of  ways  he  affords 
unmistakeable  intimation  that  this  was  his  point  of  view. 

In  the  first  place  this  Johannine  standpoint  is  strongly  asserted  in  the 
description  of  Christ  as  the  Logos,  or  Word.  As  in  Greek  usage  this  term 
connotes  both  thought  and  its  manifestation,  so  in  the  description  which 
goes  with  it  in  the  prologue  to  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  have  this  double  refer- 
ence. On  the  one  hand  the  Word,  much  after  the  pattern  of  Philo's  con- 
ception, is  the  archetypal  idea,  in  which  the  world  is  potentially  existent, 
the  rational  antecedent  of  all  things,  divine  in  relation  and  in  nature.  He 
was  in  the  beginning,  that  is,  as  far  back  as  thought  can  go  in  its  effort  to 
interpret  the  world.  He  was  with  God,  that  is,  in  living  union  with  Him. 
He  was  God,  that  is,  the  adequate  image  and  counterpart  of  the  eternal 
Father.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Word  is  the  medium  of  manifestation.  He 
bridges  over  the  interval  between  the  invisible  Father  and  the  visible  system' 


290  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  things.  "Without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been  made". 
Within  the  world  thus  dependent  on  His  agency,  He  has  been,  and  is  con- 
tinually a  source  of  illumination.  He  is  "  the  true  light,  even  the  light  which 
lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the  world  ". 

That  in  this  lofty  characterization  of  the  Word,  John  was  giving 
expression  more  or  less  directly  to  his  conviction  of  the  competency  of  the 
historical  Jesus  to  reveal  the  Father  cannot  fairly  be  questioned.  In  his 
view,  the  Word  became  flesh.  The  Word  was  in  the  historical  Jesus.  And 
He  was  there  as  a  transcendent  factor  in  the  historical  personality,  not  as 
something  eclipsed,  quiescent,  robbed  of  characteristic  powers,  and  lost  to 
self.  Who  can  read  the  discourses  which  John  attributes  to  the  Master, 
even  in  the  early  part  of  his  Gospel,  and  not  discover  there,  in  the  order  of 
self-consciousness  ascribed  to  Jesus,  a  reflex  of  the  transcendent  rank  and 
position  of  the  Word  who  was  with  God  in  the  beginning.^  His  designation 
of  Himself  in  the  third  chapter  as  the  only  begotten  Son  ;  His  description 
of  Himself  in  the  fourth  chapter  as  able  to  give  the  living  water  springing 
up  into  everlasting  life ;  His  expression  of  a  sense  of  unlimited  copartner- 
ship with  the  Father  in  the  fifth  chapter — all  this,  with  much  besides,  is 
clearly  indicative  that  Jesus,  at  least  in  the  era  of  His  public  ministry,  was 
■credited  in  Johannine  thought  with  a  knowledge  and  sense  of  prerogative, 
•correspondent  with  the  exalted  rank  and  relation  of  the  Word.  In  the 
•character  of  the  Word  He  was  accounted  to  have  been  with  the  Father  in 
the  beginning,  to  have  come  forth  from  Him,  and,  therefore,  to  have  been 
pre-eminently  qualified  to  reveal  Him. 

The  terms  used  in  the  prologue  of  the  Gospel  are  most  reasonably  taken 
as  amounting  to  an  ascription  of  personality  to  the  Word.  The  conclusion 
therefore  follows  that,  in  so  far  as  the  indwelling  Word  was  viewed  as  con- 
stitutive of  Christ,  personal  pre-existence  was  predicated  of  Him.  It  is  to 
be  noticed,  too,  that  evidence  of  faith  in  Christ's  personal  pre-existence  is 
not  confined  to  the  prologue.  John  the  Baptist  is  represented  as  saying  of 
the  Christ,  "He  was  before  me".  Of  Himself,  Christ  is  said  to  have 
declared:  "No  man  hath  ascended  into  heaven  but  He  that  descended 
out  of  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  Man  which  is  in  heaven  ".  "  He  that  cometh 
from  above  is  above  all  *  *  *  what  He  hath  seen  and  heard,  of  that  He 
beareth  witness ".  "The  bread  of  God  is  He  that  cometh  down  out  of 
heaven,  and  giveth  life  unto  the  world  ".  "  Not  that  any  man  hath  seen  the 
Father  save  He  which  is  from  God.  He  hath  seen  the  Father  ".  "  What 
then  if  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  ascending  where  He  was  before ". 
"  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am  ".  "Glorify  Me  with  Thine  own  self,  with  the 
glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the  world  was"  (i  :  30;  3:  13,  31,  32; 
6:33,46,62;  8:58;  17:5).  Now  the  collective  force  of  these  texts  is 
decisive,  and  one  and  another  of  them  taken  separately  may  well  work 
despair  in  the  critic  who  is  minded  to  impute  a  merely  ideal  pre-existence  to 
the  Johannine  Christ.  For  instance,  how  on  the  supposition  of  nothing  but 
ideal  pre-existence  can  Christ  be  said  to  have  dealt  fairly  with  the  Jews  in 
making  such  an  affirmation  as  is  recorded  in  8:58?     His  Jewish  questioners 


JESUS  THE  REVELATION  OF  THE  FATHER.  291 

understood  a  preceding  statement  to  imply  logically  that  He  was  contempo- 
rary with  Abraham.  Instead  of  correcting  their  inference,  He  approved  it, 
or  rather  transcended  it  by  explicitly  affirming  an  antiquity  superior  to  that 
of  Abraham.  Who  can  imagine  that  the  evangelist  designed  to  represent 
Him  in  this  saying  as  merely  throwing  dust  in  the  eyes  of  His  opponents  by 
using  terms  in  a  sense  foreign  to  the  occasion.-'  Again,  it  is  quite  over- 
taxing to  expel  the  thought  of  real  pre-existence  from  the  language  of  17:5. 
It  has  been  alleged,  indeed,  that,  inasmuch  as  Christ  asks  for  glorification 
as  a  reward  for  the  faithful  fulfilment  of  His  mission,  it  could  not  have  been 
His  by  right  of  original  position.  But  this  reasoning  rests  upon  an  arbitrary 
premise.  Nothing  in  the  context  enforces  the  conclusion  that  Christ  asks 
for  glorification  simply  and  solely  as  a  reward  for  fidelity.  In  His  perfect 
filial  submission,  He  recognized  that  the  times  and  the  seasons  were  in  the 
Father's  hand.  It  seemed  to  Him  that  His  work  was  approaching  a  con- 
summation, so  that  soon  the  state  of  humiliation  might  properly  give  place 
to  the  state  of  exaltation.  Very  naturally,  therefore.  He  gave  expression  to 
the  aspiration  by  which  His  spirit  was  upborne.  So  far  from  standing  in 
the  way  of  His  confident  request,  the  perfection  of  His  title  to  heavenly 
glory  gave  all  the  freer  scope  to  His  communion  with  the  Father  respecting 
His  investment  with  that  glory.  Once  more  it  has  been  urged,  that  the 
glory  to  which  Christ  looked  may  be  compared  to  the  treasure  reserved  in 
heaven  for  believers,  or  to  the  kingdom  prepared  for  the  faithful  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world  ;  and  that  consequently  it  is  only  a  conceptual  pre- 
existence  with  which  we  are  here  confronted.  But  this  way  of  arguing 
overlooks  the  broad  difference  between  the  things  brought  into  comparison. 
It  is  one  thing  to  conceive  of  a  treasure,  a  sphere  of  glory,  a  heavenly  king- 
dom, as  standing  ready  for  foreordained  subjects.  It  is  another  thing  to  say 
of  a  given  subject  that  'Repossessed or  enjoyed  that  glory  or  that  kingdom 
before  the  world  was.  A  statement  of  the  latter  order  is  never  made  in  the 
New  Testament  respecting  God's  redeemed  children.  Christ's  reference  to 
a  glory,  which  He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was,  stands  apart 
from  and  in  antithesis  to  any  scriptural  language  ever  applied  to  the  simple 
human  heir  to  a  prepared  estate.  (Compare  the  author's  System  of  Christian 
Doctrine,  pp.  613-615). 

The  conviction  was  evidently  sun-clear  in  the  mind  of  the  evangelist 
that  the  personal  existence  of  Christ  preceded  His  earthly  life.  No  less 
certain  is  it  that  He  thought  of  this  exalted  and  prior  existence  as  a  source 
of  authentic  knowledge  about  things  heavenly  and  divine.  This  point  has 
already  been  brought  out  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Johannine  thought  of 
the  incarnation  of  the  Word.  A  further  enforcement  might  be  drawn  from 
the  third  chapter  of  the  Gospel.  For,  here  Christ  is  placed  in  contrast  with 
every  other  messenger  among  men.  He  is  the  one  who  alone  has  descended 
out  of  heaven,  so  that  when  He  speaks  of  heavenly  things  He  speaks  of  that 
which  He  has  seen  and  heard.  Because  He  had  ever  had  His  home  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father  He  was  qualified  to  declare  Him. 

A  second  transcendent  qualification  of  Christ  to  reveal  the  Father,  and 


292  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

one  closely  related  to  the  foregoing,  appears  in  the  Johannine  thought  of 
His  unique  sonship  and  co-partnership  with  the  Father.  The  conviction 
that  in  Christ  an  extraordinary  sonship  came  to  manifestation  may  be 
observed  in  John's  choice  of  terms.  He  reserves  the  designation  *' Son  of 
God"  i^Uios  toil  7%<?(?i/ )  for  Christ,  styling '  all  other  participants  in  the 
filial  relation  simply  children  of  God  (tektia  Theou).  That  this  usage  should 
prevail  without  a  single  exception  may  reasonably  be  regarded  as  indicative 
that  sonship  in  some  special  and  extraordinary  sense  pertained  to  Christ. 
The  same  belief  is  likewise  attested  by  the  employment  of  the  phrase  "  only 
begotten  ".  Whatever  interpretation  may  have  been  claimed  for  this  phrase 
by  one  and  another  exegete,  Meyer  expresses  its  natural  implication  when 
he  says :  "  Only  begotten  designates  the  Logos  as  the  only  Son,  besides 
whom  the  Father  has  none,  who  did  not,  like  the  tekfia  Theou  (i :  12,  13), 
become  such  by  moral  generation,  nor  by  adoption,  but  by  intrinsic  relation 
inhering  in  the  divine  essence,  whereby  He  was  in  the  beginning  with  God, 
being  Himself  divine  in  nature  and  person".  (Comment  on  John  i:  14.) 
In  this  point  of  view,  the  natal  day  of  the  Son  was  antecedent  to  the  world. 
He  was  the  Son  as  the  ever-uttered  Word.  To  borrow  a  phrase  from  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  He  was  the  Son  as  "  the  effulgence  of  the  Father's 
glory  and  the  express  image  of  His  substance  ". 

In  harmony  with  this  assumption  of  a  transcendent  sonship,  we  meet  in 
the  Johannine  teaching  with  a  mighty  emphasis  upon  the  complete  co-part- 
nership of  the  Son  with  the  Father.  Few  things  in  the  whole  content  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  come  to  more  frequent  and  energetic  expression  than  this 
fact  of  full  co-partnership.  John  the  Baptist  is  represented  as  saying: 
"The  Father  loveth  the  Son  and  hath  given  all  things  into  His  hand" 
(3  ■  35)-  From  the  lips  of  Christ  such  sentences  are  placed  on  record  as  the 
following:  "The  Father  loveth  the  Son,  and  showeth  Him  all  things  that 
Himself  doeth  "  (5:20).  "The  Father  hath  given  all  judgment  unto  the 
Son,  that  all  may  honor  the  Son,  even  as  they  honor  the  Father  "  (5  :  22,  23). 
"  As  the  Father  raiseth  the  dead  and  quickeneth  them,  even  so  the  Son 
quickeneth  whom  He  will"  (5  :  21).  "As  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself, 
even  so  gave  He  to  the  Son  also  to  have  life  in  Himself "  (5  :  26).  "  I  am  the 
bread  of  life ".  "  As  the  living  Father  sent  Me,  and  I  live  because  of 
the  Father,  so  he  that  eateth  Me,  he  also  shall  live  because  of  Me  "  (6 :  48,  57). 
"He  that  sent  Me  is  with  Me;  He  hath  not  left  Me  alone"  (8:  29).  "I 
speak  the  things  which  I  have  seen  with  My  Father"  (8:38).  "I  know 
Mine  own,  and  Mine  own  know  Me,  even  as  the  Father  knoweth  Me,  and  I 
know  the  Father"  (10:  14,  15).  "I  and  My  Father  are  one"  (10:  30).  "If 
I  do  not  the  works  of  My  Father,  believe  Me  not.  But  if  I  do  them,  though 
ye  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works;  that  ye  may  know  and  understand 
that  the  Father  is  in  Me,  and  I  in  the  Father"  (10:  37,  38).  "  Believest 
thou  not  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in  Me  ?  In  that  day  ye 
shall  know  that  I  am  in  My  Father,  and  ye  in  Me  and  I  in  you  "  (14  :  10,  20). 
"All  things  whatsoever  the  Father  hath  are  Mine"  (16:  15). 

It  may  be  admitted  that  in  some  of  the  Johannine  sentences  which 
accentuate  the  union  of  the  Son  with  the  Father  the  thought  of  moral  union 


JESUS  THE  REVELATION  OF  THE  FATHER.  293 

is  prominent.  Indeed,  it  would  be  a  distinct  loss  to  withhold  recognition 
from  this  thought  or  to  allow  it  to  be  displaced  by  any  competing  notion. 
The  oneness  of  Christ  with  the  Father  in  the  sense  of  perfect  conformity  to 
the  Father's  ethical  nature  and  will  is  of  the  highest  practical  moment.  It 
is  revelation  of  the  divine  on  this  side  that  we  want  above  all  to  receive  in 
trustworthy  and  adequate  form.  But  still  it  is  quite  without  warrant  to  sup- 
pose that  John  made  a  gap  between  the  moral  and  the  metaphysical,  and 
gave  his  contemplation  exclusively  to  the  former  when  he  spoke  of  the  one- 
ness of  the  Son  with  the  Father.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  every  way  probable 
that  he  thought  of  the  exceptional  nature  and  divine  relation  which  he 
affirmed  of  the  Son  as  being  auxiliary  to  the  unique  moral  unity.  We  may 
say,  indeed,  that  it  is  certain  that  he  supposed  the  transcendent  knowledge, 
which  pertained  to  the  Son  from  His  residence  with  the  Father  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  to  have  qualified  Him  in  an  extraordinary  degree 
to  embrace  the  moral  purposes  of  God  in  all  their  reach  and  compass.  The 
intrinsic  connections  of  Johannine  thought  assure  us  that,  though  the  pri- 
mary stress  may  have  been  on  moral  unity,  there  was  a  certain  reference  in 
the  expressions  under  consideration  to  the  truth  asserted  at  the  opening  of 
the  Gospel :  "  The  Word  was  with  God  and  the  Word  was  God  ". 

It  scarcely  needs  to  be  stated  that  no  higher  qualification  for  divine 
revelation  can  be  conceived  than  this  unique  sonship  and  co-partnership 
with  the  Father.  Who  should  know  the  Father  so  well  as  the  only-begotten 
Son  ?  The  servant  may  not  know  what  his  lord  doeth,  but  the  son  dwelling 
in  bosom  companionship  with  the  head  of  the  house  may  be  supposed  to 
share  his  counsels  fully.  Who  should  be  able  to  represent  the  Father  so 
well  as  the  one  having  such  community  with  Him  that  He  could  say  of 
Himself :  "  I  and  My  Father  are  one  "  .^  Then,  too,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  perfect  sonship  is  in  itself,  by  virtue  of  its  essential  characteristics,  a 
medium  for  revealing  God  in  so  far  as  the  fatherly  character  is  truly 
descriptive  of  Him.  Sonship  and  fatherhood  are  normally  correlated.  The 
one  reveals  the  other.  When  we  see  the  child  who  has  had  full  opportunity 
to  know  the  parent,  yielding  to  that  parent  hearty  reverence,  clinging  love, 
and  unqualified  confidence,  then  spontaneously  we  image  to  ourselves  the 
parent  as  characterized  by  tender  dignity,  exemplary  largeness,  of  heart, 
and  great  fervency  and  constancy  of  affection.  Under  the  supposed  condi- 
tions the  filial  mirrors  the  paternal.  So  we  look  upon  the  sonship  of  Jesus, 
and  as  we  feel  the  charm  of  its  beauty  and  perfection  we  pass  up  spon- 
taneously to  the  fatherhood  to  which  it  responds,  and  feel  in  like  manner 
the  charm  of  its  beauty  and  perfection.  The  realized  ideal  of  sonship 
touches  us  with  a  vital  impression  of  the  ideal  fatherhood.  In  this  way, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  His  career,  Jesus  shows  us  the  Father.  It 
is  impossible  for  us  to  walk  with  Him  and  take  note  of  His  filial  spirit  with- 
out being  introduced  to  the  paternal  counterpart. 

Once  more  Johannine  teaching  awards  to  Jesus  a  special  prerogative  to 
reveal  the  Father  in  consideration  of  His  extraordinary  vocation  and  works. 
His  coming  is  set  forth  as  the  sun-burst  of  eternal  love  upon  this  world  of 
sin  and  miser>\     Back  of  advent,  doing,  suffering,  propitiation,  everything. 


294  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

was  the  free,  unbought  love  of  the  Father.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  gave  His  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should 
not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life  "(3:16).  "  Herein  was  the  love  of  God 
manifested  in  us,  that  God  hath  sent  His  only-begotten  Son  into  the  world, 
that  we  might  live  through  Him.  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God, 
but  that  He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins  " 
(i  John  4: 9,  10).  Thus  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  was  inaugurated  in  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Father.  Indeed,  Bushnell  kept  fully  within  the  warrant  of 
Johannine  teaching  when  He  spoke  of  the  cross  as  being  in  God's  heart 
from  eternity.  According  to  most  emphatic  declarations  of  the  evangelist, 
the  love  of  the  Father  was  but  given  visible  expression  in  all  that  the  Son 
did  and  suffered  for  men. 

Not  merely  in  its  general  tenor  and  import  does  the  life-story  of  Jesus 
serve  to  reveal  the  Father,  but  also  various  single  features  of  that  story  may 
be  regarded  as  mirroring  the  feeling  and  attitude  of  the  heavenly  Father 
toward  men.  When  we  note  the  tenderness  with  which  Jesus  ministered  to 
the  suffering  and  distressed,  we  have  an  object  lesson  on  the  compassion  of 
the  heavenly  Father,  and  are  encouraged  to  believe,  in  spite  of  the  hard 
appearance  of  nature  and  history,  that  His  tender  mercies  are  over  all  the 
works  of  His  hands.  When  we  observe  the  patience  which  Jesus  exercised 
toward  disciples  who  were  short-sighted  and  slow  of  heart,  we  have  disclosed 
to  us  the  forbearance  of  the  heavenly  Father  toward  His  blundering  and 
imperfect  children.  When  we  read  the  parable  of  the  good  shepherd,  and 
consider  the  wealth  of  affectionate  solicitude  and  care  for  the  sheep  which 
it  portrays,  we  know  that  all  the  Psalmist  said  about  the  Lord  as  a  shepherd 
is  gloriously  true  for  every  soul  that  has  a  purpose  to  follow  His  leading. 
When  we  come  upon  the  record  that  Jesus  having  loved  His  own  which 
were  in  the  world  loved  them  unto  the  end,  or  hear  His  own  declaration 
that  no  one  shall  ever  snatch  His  sheep  out  of  His  hand,  we  have  pictured 
to  us  the  tenacity  of  that  love  with  which  the  heavenly  Father  cleaves  to 
those  who  have  ever  entered  into  filial  relations  with  Himself.  In  short,  in 
all  the  typical  scenes  and  events  of  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  we  may  note  the 
application  of  His  own  comprehensive  words:  "He  that  hath  seen  Me 
hath  seen  the  Father." 

The  aspiring  mystic  is  inclined  to  think  of  the  direct  flight  of  the  soul 
to  God  as  his  high  privilege,  and  to  rate  any  intermediate  agency  as  a 
superfluity.  At  times  he  is  even  tempted  to  give  slight  recognition  to  his 
dependence  upon  the  Christ.  But  in  the  continual  use  of  this  method  he  is 
likely  to  discover  that  his  impression  of  the  divine  is  becoming  vague,  and 
his  sense  of  fellowship  with  the  divine  is  waning  in  vitality.  It  answers  to 
a  deep  need  of  the  human  heart  to  have  the  divine  set  forth  through  a  con- 
crete historic  medium.  So  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  felt,  and  he 
considered  that  the  need  had  been  perfectly  met  in  his  Lord  and  Master. 
The  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  flooded  his  soul  as  with  the  radiance 
of  a  sweet  and  holy  morning.  May  the  responsive  heart  be  in  us,  that  the 
same  revelation  may  bring  to  us  also  a  full  measure  of  illumination  and 
rejoicing. 


i 


•THE    PRESENCE    OF    THE    FATHER,  SON    AND    SPIRIT   THROUGH 
OBEDIENCE  TO  THE  COMMANDS  OF  CHRIST. 

(St.  John   14  :  21-26.) 
by  rkv.  robert  a.  a«h"worth. 

Pastor  of  The  First  Baptist  Church,  Meriden,  Conn. 

Luther  used  to  call  the  Gospel  of  John  "  the  child's  Go.spel  ",  because 
of  its  simplicity.  It  is  as  simple  as  are  all  the  great  things  of  earth  and 
heaven,  and  it  is  also  as  profound.  It  is  as  lucid  and  translucent  as  the 
ocean,  and  as  fathomless.  It  is  as  bottomless  as  the  Utgard  horn,  which 
Thor  once  tried  to  drain,  for  its  sources  are  hidden  in  the  depths  of  divine 
love.  We  shall  never  exhaust  the  meaning  of  this  (iospel  of  heaven.  It  is 
a  text-book  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

In  the  three  verses  which  we  are  to  consider  together,  though  they  are 
not  cast  in  the  form  of  the  syllogism,  there  is  a  logical  progression  of 
thought.  The  third  verse  is  an  epitome  of  the  whole :  "If  a  man  love  Me, 
he  will  keep  My  words;  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come 
unto  him,  and  make  Our  abode  with  him".  Three  key  words  serve  to 
unlock  its  meaning:  obedience,  love,  manifestation.  First,  obedience  to 
Christ's  commands  proves  man's  love  for  Him ;  second,  such  obedience  and 
love  is  rewarded  by  the  love  of  the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  third,  this  mutual 
love  of  God  and  man  furnishes  the  conditions  of  the  revelation  of  the 
Father  ai)d  the  Son  in  the  loyal  soul  through  the  abiding  presence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

I.  First,  then,  obedience  to  Christ's  commands  proves  man's  love 
for  Him. 

Obedience  is  at  once  the  outgrowth  and  the  test  of  love  to  Christ.  "  If 
a  man  love  Me  he  will  keep  My  words  ".  Love  to  Christ  must  always,  if  it 
be  worthy  of  the  name,  issue  in  obedience.  It  divines  the  wishes  of  the 
Master  and  springs  to  fulfil  them.  It  needs  no  compulsion  nor  any  code  of 
rules  :  it  serves  the  spirit,  not  the  letter. 

Love  for  Christ,  you  see,  is  a  very  practical  thing  indeed.  It  is  not  a 
mere  emotion  in  which  "  to  sit  and  sing  ourselves  away  to  realms  of  ever- 
lasting bliss".  It  is  not  the  luxurious  and  enervating  atmosphere  of  which 
the  sentimentalist  and  the  poet  prate,  though  it  might  well  form  the  theme 
of  the  poet's  song.  It  "  bids,  not  sit  nor  stand,  but  go  !  "  It  is  obedience 
to  the  demands  of  a  strenuous  life  of  sacrifice.  It  places  Christ  above 
every  worldly  good,  above  father  or  mother,  brother  or  sister.     The  life  it 


♦Delivered    at    the    Sixth    Conference,    held  at    the    Trinity    Union    Methodist    Episcopal    Church, 

March   9,  1904. 

295 


296  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

demands  is  no  easy,  rose-strown  path,  warmed  by  a  mawkish  sentimen- 
tality. It  may  lead  a  man  to  darkest  Africa  or  China.  It  may  mean  the 
dengue  fever,  or  a  hostile  Boxer  mob  and  a  cruel  death  in  a  lonely  land. 
Love  is  not  a  notion  of  the  brain,  but  a  set  of  the  will.  It  lives  in  deeds, 
not  words;  life  service,  not  lip  service.  It  says,  "I'll  go  where  you  want 
me  to  go,  I'll  do  what  you  want  me  to  do,  I'll  be  what  you  want  me  to 
be ",  It  is  the  foundation  of  all  morality,  the  inspiration  of  all  self- 
sacrifice. 

And  obedience  is  not  only  the  logical  consequence  and  fruit  of  love,  it 
is  also  love's  supreme  test.  "  He  that  hath  My  commandments  and  keep- 
eth  them,  he  it  is  (and  no  other)  that  loveth  Me  ".  We  cannot  conceive  a 
fairer  test  than  this.  There  are  many  false  and  sentimental  forms  of  affec- 
tion in  the  world,  masquerading  under  that  name,  from  which  these  words 
of  Jesus  strip  the  disguise.  There  is  a  moral  and  intellectual  admiration  of 
Jesus  which  is  not  love  because  it  will  not  obey ;  it  resides  in  the  head,  and 
never  lays  hold  of  the  springs  of  action ;  it  doffs  the  cap  and  bows  the 
head,  but  does  not  do  the  will.  Love  is  obedience.  All  other  so-called 
love  is  spurious.     To  love  is  to  obey  ;  to  obey  is  to  love. 

"  Obedience !    'Tis  the  great  tap  root,  which  still 
Knit  round  the  rock  of  duty,  is  not  stirred 
Though  storm  and  tempest  work  their  utmost  will  I "         . 

2.  Such  obedient  love  is  rewarded  by  the  love  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son.  This  form  of  devotion,  a  love  which  serves,  attracts  as  the  earth  the 
lightning,  the  love  of  God.  Obedience  is  love's  law  of  gravitation.  In  a 
sense,  God  loves  all  men  :  "  God  so  loved  the  world  ",  we  read — the  world 
alienated  by  wicked  works,  disloyal.  In  this  one-half  God's  heart,  its  giv- 
ing impulse,  is  satisfied.  This  is  the  love  of  benevolence,  which  loves  while 
it  cannot  approve.  But  God's  is  a  moral  affection,  and  He  loves  in  a 
special  sense  those  whose  regard  for  Him  is  proved  by  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  His  Son.  "  How  can  two  walk  together  except  they  be 
agreed  ?  "  Love  which  is  not  mutual  is  incomplete.  "  He  that  loveth  Me 
shall  be  loved  of  My  Father".  God's  love  for  the  Son  includes  all  who  are 
loyal  to  Him.  This  is  the  love  of  complacence,  which  also  approves  its 
object.  It  differs  from  that  of  benevolence,  which  God  cherishes  toward 
all  men,  as  one's  pity  for  a  guilty  and  unresponsive  neighbor  differs  from 
the  love  of  a  father  for  a  worthy  son  who  returns  his  affection.  In  it  the 
whole  heart  of  God  finds  satisfaction,  the  craving  as  well  as  the  giving 
impulse. 

He  who  obeys  Christ,  then,  loves  Him  ;  he  who  loves  Christ  shall  be 
loved  of  God.  The  third  step  in  this  progression  is  a  very  blessed  one — 
"And  I  ",  says  Jesus,  "  will  love  him  ".  A  new  and  more  tender  affection 
springs  up  m  the  heart  of  Jesus  as  He  sees  the  eye  of  the  Father  resting 
upon  His  disciple.  The  loyal  soul  is  now  enfolded  in  love  as  in  an  atmos- 
phere ;  he  is  bathed  in  it  as  in  a  sea.  Three  arcs  make  up  the  perfect 
circle :  man's  arc  of  love  is  the  shorter,  yet  it  reaches  a  part  of  the  way ; 


PRESENCE  OF  THE  FATHER,  SON  AND  SPIRIT.        297 

Christ's  love  and  God's  love  are  the  larger  arcs  which  overlap  each  other 
and  the  love  of  man,  and  wrap  him  round  and  round  in  a  perfect  sphere. 

3.  The  two  thoughts  which  we  have  traversed  thus  far  are  :  i.  Obe- 
dience— of  man  to  Christ.  2.  Love — of  the  Father  and  the  Son  for  the 
obedient  soul.  By  these  two  steps  on  the  ladder  of  love  we  have  reached 
the  third  stage  in  the  thought  of  the  text — "Manifestation".  "He  that 
obeys  Me  loves  Me,  and  he  that  lovingly  obeys  Me  shall  be  loved  by  My 
Father  and  Myself,  and  I  will  manifest  Myself  to  him  ". 

Let  us  consider,  first,  the  condition  on  which  this  manifestation  of  the 
Son  is  promised,  and,  second,  the  form  which  it  takes. 

The  condition  of  the  revelation  is  love  in  the  recipient  soul,  Jesus 
will  not  reveal  Himself  to  all  men.  "Judas  (not  Iscariot)  saith  unto  Him, 
Lord,  what  is  come  to  pass  that  Thou  wilt  manifest  Thyself  unto  us,  and 
not  unto  the  world  ?  "  Judas  was  not  of  that  group  of  the  disciples  who 
understood  most  keenly  the  mind  of  their  Master.  Only  lately  Jesus  had 
shown  Himself  openly  to  the  people  in  His  triumphal  entrance  into  the  holy 
city.  Judas  thought  that  something  must  have  happened  that  Jesus  should 
now  confine  His  manifestation  to  a  chosen  few.  Jesus  does  not  answer 
Judas  directly,  but  proceeds  as  though  He  had  not  heard  the  question. 
Yet  He  does  in  effect  answer  him  by  reaffirming  the  promise  and  emphasiz- 
ing again  the  condition  on  which  the  revelation  of  Himself  may  be  received. 
"Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him.  If  a  man  love  Me,  he  will  keep  My 
word;  and  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  We  will  come  unto  him  ".  Jesus 
will  reveal  Himself  only  to  those  who  love  and  obey  Him.  He  can  reveal 
Himself  only  to  such,  for  without  love  in  the  heart  no  man  can  receive  the 
revelation  of  God. 

The  intellect  alone  can  never  know  God.  The  brain  is  agnostic.  The 
question  of  Job,  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ?  "  has  never  been 
answered  with  satisfaction  to  the  intellect.  The  astronomer  sweeps  the 
heaven  with  his  telescope  and  declares  that  he  cannot  find  God  there. 
The  geologist  with  his  hammer  breaks  up  the  rocks  and  delves  into  the 
earth,  but  does  not  discover  the  Creator.  The  anatomist  with  his  scalpel 
divides  the  tissues  of  the  body,  and  traces  nerve,  and  vein  and  artery  to  its 
source,  but  the  God  in  man  eludes  him.  The  psychologist  ponders  the 
processes  of  mind  and  formulates  the  rules  of  its  action,  but  fails  to  find 
the  guiding  hand. 

But  the  intellect  was  never  meant  to  be  the  only  organ  of  discovery. 
Man  was  made  to  soar  toward  truth  on  the  two  pinions  of  intellect  and 
heart.  When  he  beats  the  air  with  either  wing  alone  he  flutters,  but  he 
cannot  fly.  A  certain  fondness  for  a  matter  will  do  much  to  aid  us  to 
pierce  to  the  central  secret  of  it.  Without  the  lubricant  of  love  the  edge  of 
mind  grows  dull.  A  little  warm  sunshine  will  sometimes  bore  farther  than 
an  augur,  no  matter  how  much  brute  force  there  may  be  behind  it.  All  of 
which  are  but  different-ways  of  saying  that  the  heart  will  often  guide  us  to 
truth  which  the  head  would  never  discover.  The  artist  detects  beauiies  in 
nature,  delicacies  of  color  and  form  to  w  hich  we  are  blind,  because  he  is 


298  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

endowed  with  the  insight  of  love.     The  musician  hears  harmonies  to  which 
we  are  deaf,  because  the  whole  man  vibrates  in  unison  with  them. 

"  Earth's  crammed  with  heaven, 
And  every  common  bush  afire  with  God, 
But  only  he  who  sees  takes  off  his  shoes  ". 

"  Ever  the  words  of  the  gods  resound; 
But  the  porches  of  man's  ear 
Seldom  in  this  low  life's  round, 

Are  unsealed  that  he  may  hear". 

It  is  love  that  enlightens  the  eyes  and  unseals  the  ears.  Love  is  the 
eye  of  the  soul.  They  tell  us,  love  is  blind !  No !  there  is  nothing  else  in  the 
universe  so  clear  sighted  ! 

We  cannot  know  man  until  we  have  learned  to  love  him.  We  do  not 
know  our  acquaintances ;  only  our  friends,  and  these  in  proportion  to  our 
affection  for  them.  In  the  better  world,  if  men  should  be  stripped  of  the 
bodies  by  which  we  have  hitherto  recognized  them,  we  shall  know  only 
those  with  whose  souls  we  have  become  intimate  here.  And  we  cannot 
know  souls  except  as  we  love  them.  Without  love  is  no  sympathy,  there- 
fore no  knowledge. 

It  is  the  loving  heart  alone,  then,  that  can  receive  the  manifestations 
of  God  in  Christ.  There  must  have  been,  I  think,  in  the  mind  of  John, 
some  reminiscence  of  the  thought  of  our  text  when  he  declared  in  his  Epis- 
tle, "  Everyone  that  loveth,  knoweth  God  ".  We  must  come  toward  Him 
from  this  angle  before  we  can  understand  Him.  If  the  brain  is  agnostic, 
the  heart  is  theistic.  Christ  cannot  reveal  Himself  to  a  loveless  world 
simply  because  it  lacks  the  organ  of  apprehension.  Affection  is  the  only 
soil  in  which  knowledge  of  God  grows  to  its  rarest  heights.  Paul,  the 
philosopher,  introduces  us  to  God,  tells  us  many  things  about  Him ;  John, 
the  beloved  disciple,  puts  into  our  hand  the  key  which  unlocks  the  chamber 
in  which  He  dwells  and  ushers  us  into  His  presence,  and  the  name  of  that 
key  is  love. 

If  we  would,  then,  have  this  manifestation  of  Jesus  in  our  lives,  we 
must  love  Him  and  obey  Him.  Every  act  of  loving  obedience  will  make 
the  vision  clearer.  This  is  the  indispensible  condition  of  knowledge  of 
God,  a  love  which  reverently  keeps  His  word. 

We  pass  to  the  form  which  this  promised  manifestation  will  take  :  "  We 
will  come  unto  Him  and  make  Our  abode  with  Him  ". 

Two  points  attract  our  attention.  First,  the  manifestation  of  Christ  is 
made  from  within  the  soul,  not  from  without.  This  inwardness  of  the 
revelation  is  what  troubled  Judas.  "What  has  come  to  pass",  he  asks, 
"  that  Thou,  as  Messiah,  will  not  show  Thyself  openly  as  we  have  expected, 
so  that  the  Gentiles  may  come  to  Thy  light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of 
Thy  rising?  "  It  is,  however,  a  spiritual  presence  of  which  Jesus  is  speak- 
ing. It  is  no  sudden  or  magical  revelation,  but  one  that  comes  by  the  slow 
process  of  living  and  loving.     It  is  not  accompanied  by  the  signs  of  earthly 


PRESENCE  OE  THE  EA  THER,  SON  AND  SJ '/R/7\        299 

power  or  by  the  trappings  of  earthly  state.     Men  cannot  say  of  it,  "Lo, 
here !  "  or  "  Lo,  there  !  "    It  is  a  revelation  within  the  soul. 

Second,  the  manifestation  is  permanent,  not  transient :  "  We  will  come 
unto  Him  and  make  Our  abode  with  Him".  Jesus  has  been  telling  His 
disciples  that  He  must  soon  leave  them,  but  He  now  answers  them  that 
His  absence  is  not  to  be  for  long.  In  exchange  for  the  physical  presence 
of  the  Master,  with  its  limitations  of  place  and  time,  they  are  to  have  the 
spiritual  presence,  which  is  free  from  these  limitations.  The  loving  heart 
is  to  become  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Father  and  Son. 

We  associate,  and  rightly,  this  passage  with  the  promise,  which  came 
earlier  in  the  chapter,  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  verse  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  text,  Jesus  has  said,  "  In  that  day  ye  shall  know  that  I 
am  in  My  Father  and  ye  in  Me  and  I  in  you".  The  expression  "in  that 
day  "  is  held  by  most  to  indicate  a  precise  moment  rather  than  a  period, 
and  is  referred  to  Pentecost.  We  are  to  recognize,  then,  in  the  coming  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  advent  of  the  Father  and  Son  to  make  their  abode  in 
the  human  heart.  The  thought  most  grateful  to  us  is,  that  in  the  presence 
of  the  Spirit  we  may  recognize  the  presence  of  Jesus.  "The  Lord  is  the 
Spirit "  (2  Cor.  3:17).  This  Jesus  whom  we  have  learned  to  love  comes  in 
the  Spirit  to  dwell  with  us. 

This  blessed  promise  of  the  Saviour  irradiates  life  with  a  new  hope. 
Jesus  is  not  merely  a  good  man  who  has  passed  away,  leaving  only  an  influ- 
ence behind  Him.  Our  God  is  not  the  unknowable  God  of  the  agnostic, 
of  whom  we  can  learn  no  more  than  of  the  further  side  of  the  moon.  God 
and  Christ  dwell  in  the  obedient  soul. 

"  Nearer  is  He  than  breathing, 
Closer  than  hands  or  feet  ". 

Having  seen  the  vision,  man  is  not  to  be  left  to  fight  the  battle  with  sin 
alone.  There  is  to  be  an  abiding  presence  within  the  soul  to  inspire,  and 
guard,  and  guide. 

In  ancient  Greece,  so  runs  the  legend,  a  prize  was  oftered  for  the  best 
statue  of  a  certain  god.  Faith  in  the  gods  was  almost  gone,  but  in  a  coun- 
try village,  near  a  marble  quarry,  lived  a  youth  who  still  believed  in  them 
and  loved  them.  He  aspired  to  win  the  prize  for  himself.  Choosing  a 
rough  block  of  marble,  he  set  to  work  with  all  his  skill.  But,  though  he 
had  in  his  soul  the  highest  ideal  of  the  majesty  and  beauty  of  the  god 
whom  he  would  portray,  his  clumsy  fingers  made  little  progress.  At  last 
the  statues  were  gathered  to  be  judged,  and  among  them  the  rude,  uncouth 
attempt  of  the  boy.  The  critics  ridiculed  the  inartistic  figure,  and  the  boy 
hung  his  head  in  shame.  But  the  god  in  whom  the  youth  believed  had  pity 
on  him,  and  entered  into  the  pathetic  failure.  Then  the  head  was  proudly 
raised,  the  harsh  lines  fell  away  into  perfect  symmetry  and  grace,  and  the 
statue  took  on  the  vigor  and  harmony  of  life.  So  Christ  enters  the  soul 
that  loves  Him  and  redeems  its  failures,  working  out  within  it,  in  wondrous 


300  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

beauty,  the  ideal  of  which  it  despairs.  So  the  obedient  soul  triumphs 
through  the  indwelling  Christ. 

The  promise  of  Jesus  fills  life  also  with  a  new  purpose.  How  well 
worth  striving  for  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  the  Saviour's  presence. 
How  vain  and  empty  in  comparison  the  prospect  which  the  world  holds  out 
to  its  votaries,  of  wealth,  or  fame,  or  ease.  To  gain  Christ  and  be  found  in 
Him,  to  have  His  abiding  presence  in  our  hearts,  is  the  noblest  aspiration 
of  the  soul  that  loves  Him. 

It  makes  forever  impossible  also  any  lower  aim.  If  Christ  will  dwell 
in  us,  the  house  must  be  swept  and  garnished,  and  other  guests,  whom  He 
cannot  know,  must  be  expelled.  How  can  selfishness,  or  greed,  or  any 
baseness  find  a  home  with  us  ?  We  can  never  be  satisfied  now  with  anything 
less  than  the  highest. 

A  Roman  sculptor  once  began  a  statue  of  the  Christ.  After  weary 
months  of  toil  he  brought  a  friend  into  his  studio  and  unveiled  the  statue 
with  the  question,  "  Who  is  this  ? "  The  friend  replied,  "  That  is  surely  the 
figure  of  some  very  great  and  good  man  ".  Profoundly  disappointed,  the 
artist  set  to  work  again,  and  after  other  months  of  labor,  bringing  into  the 
room  a  little  child,  he  again  asked  the  question.  The  child  clasped  her 
hands  and  said,  "  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me  ".  Then  the 
sculptor  knew  that  he  had  succeeded.  A  little  later  came  an  order  from  the 
emperor  that  he  should  make  a  statue  of  Venus  for  the  palace.  But  the 
sculptor  proudly  refused,  sending  back  the  message,  "  I  have  conceived  a 
statue  of  the  Christ !  I  can  no  longer  carve  statues  to  Venus !  "  So  the 
vision  once  seen,  the  presence  once  felt,  we  can  no  longer  live  upon  the 
lower  plane  of  the  past.  We  are  driven  forward  to  ever  new  heights  of 
achievement  and  experience. 

It  raises  man,  finally,  to  a  new  dignity.  To  be  capable  of  such  fellow- 
ship with  God  as  Jesus  here  suggests,  predicates  something  of  man  that  is 
very  wonderful  indeed.  What  less  does  it  mean  than  the  essential  unity  of  the 
nature  of  God  and  Christ  and  man.^  It  draws  man  out  of  time  and  sets  him 
in  eternity.  It  finds  him  on  the  earth  and  leaves  him  in  heaven.  It  is  the 
last  and  greatest  word  that  can  be  said  of  man,  and  sets  him  off  from  the 
rest  of  created  things  in  exalted  isolation.  It  arouses  every  ambition  of  the 
soul,  sanctifies  it  and  satisfies' it.  This  is  our  heritage  from  God,  heirs,  not 
only  of  what  God  has  to  give,  but  heirs  of  God  Himself.  "What  is  man 
that  thou  art  mindful  of  him,  or  the  son  of  man  that  thou  visitest  him  ? " 
The  grateful  soul  exclaims,  "Thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  God, 
and  hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and  honor!  "  "Thanks  be  unto  God  for 
His  unspeakable  gift !  " 

"The  very  God!  think  Abib;  dost  thou  think? 
So,  the  All-Great  were  the  All- Loving  too — 
So,  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  voice 
Saying, '  O  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here! 
Face,  My  hands  fashioned,  see  it  in  Myself! 
Thou  hast  no  power,  nor  mayst  conceive  of  Mine, 
But  love  I  gave  thee,  with  Myself  to  love, 
And  thou  must  love  Me  who  have  died  for  thee ! " 


•  FRIENDSHIP  WITH  JESUS  THROUGH  OBEDIENCE  TO  HIS  COMMANDS. 

(  St.  John  15:14,  15.) 

HY    RKV.    JOHN    T>.    PICIvLKS,    l^H.    n.. 

Pastor  of  St.  John's  Methooist  Episcopal  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 

I  have  been  assigned  the  exposition  of  John  15:14,  "Ye  are  My 
friends  if  ye  do  the  things  which  I  command  you  ". 

The  topic  as  formulated  is  "  Friendship  with  Jesus  through  Obedience 
to  His  Commands  ". 

I  regret  that  I  have  not  had  the  privilege  and  the  benefit  of  all  the 
Conferences  dealing  with  the  Gospel  of  John,  which  Dr.  Sears  so  aptly 
termed  the  "  Heart  of  Christ  ".  And  especially  would  I  have  enjoyed  Drs. 
Sheldon  and  Mackay,  as  in  your  last  Conference  they  treated  specifically  of 
matters  closely  and  even  vitally  related  to  the  topic  assigned  me. 

All  the  utterances  of  Jesus  are  of  importance,  but  especially  are  those 
accentuated  which  fell  from  His  lips  as  He  moved  tenderly  yet  resolutely 
forward  into  the  deepening  shadows  of  Gethsemane  and  Calvary.  They 
were  the  farewell  words,  the  dying  legacy,  of  One  who  in  a  few  short  hours 
would  breathe  out  His  life  amid  the  awful  agonies  and  bitter  humiUations  of 
the  Cross.  We  would  come  then  into  this  chamber  of  the  dying  with  bated 
breath  and  utmost  reverence,  and  listen  with  deepest  attentiveness  to  the 
words  which  hold  in  themselves  an  immortality  of  significance.  Among 
them  are  the  words  immediately  before  us,  "  Ye  are  My  friends  if  ye  do 
whatsoever  I  command  you  ". 

Four  things  emerge  out  of  my  study  of  this  statement. 

I  St.     The  Absolutism  of  Jesus,  involving  His  possession  of  Deity. 

No  mere  man  would  dare  assert  himself  in  this  form.  For  any  com- 
pelled obedience,  as  between  man  and  man,  leads  not  to  friendship,  but  to 
serfdom  and  to  slavery.  It  is  but  the  prelude  to  shackles  and  to  stripes 
and  to  hatred.  But  as  we  throw  our  thought  over  the  larger  area  of  Christ's 
teaching  throughout  His  whole  ministry,  we  find  this  indirect  yet  vital 
assumption  fully  and  positively  maintained  in  the  discourses  of  our  Lord. 
In  His  masterly  "  Sermon  on  the  Mount",  which  title  Prof.  Gibson  dis- 
claims as  being  altogether  too  inadequate  and  for  which  he  would  substitute 
Matthew's  own  term,  "  The  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  ",  as  "  the  grand  char- 
ter of  the  commonwealth  of  heaven  ",  Jesus  directly  makes  the  issue  as 
pertaining  to  authority  between  Himself  and  others,  when  He  says  again 
and  again,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them  of  old  time,  *  *  * 
but  /  say  unto  you"  (Matt.  5:21,  22,  27,  28,  33,  34,  etc.).  In  the  tenth 
chapter  of  this  Gospel,  He  declares,  "All  that  ever  came  before  Me  are  thieves 


Delivered  at  the  Eighth  Conference,  held  at  .All  .Saints  Memorial  Church,  .May  ii,  1904. 

301 


302  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

and  robbers ;  /am  the  door  "  (John  lo  :  8,9).  One  day,  when  great  multitudes 
were  following  Him,  He  startled  them  and  has  challenged  every  generation 
since,  by  the  sweeping  words,  "  If  any  man  come  to  Me,  and  hate  not  his 
father,  and  mother,  and  wife  and  children,  and  brethren  and  sisters,  yea, 
and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  My  disciple  "  (Luke  14:26).  These 
are  but  samples  of  many  direct  and  of  more  indirect,  but  none  the  less 
forceful  claims  which  Jesus  makes  upon  men  for  their  recognition  of  the 
supreme  place  which  He  must  hold  in  their  affections  and  service  growing 
out  of  the  divine  nature  which  inheres  in  Him,  and  to  which  His  life,  His 
teachings  and  His  achievements  give  witness. 

To  an  ordinary  human  being  possessing  only  the  attributes  and  powers 
of  our  common  humanity,  yet  making  such  a  tremendous  claim  as  this  upon 
his  fellow  mortals,  the  answer  would  be  disdain  and  contempt,  and  if  per- 
sisted in,  would  mean  either  an  asylum  for  the  insane  or  the  walls  of  a 
prison.  But  when  made  by  this  one  unique  world-shadowing  character, 
whose  influence  augments  with  the  centuries,  who  is  being  recognized  by 
increasing  millions  as  "  very  God  of  very  God  ",  as  the  "  eternal  Son  of  the 
Father  ",  as  "  God  over  all,  blessed  forevermore  ",  then  this  claim,  abso- 
lute as  it  is,  and  all  inclusive  as  it  is,  in  its  nature  and  in  its  duration,  is 
recognized  as  being  indeed  most  reasonable,  and  appeals  in  the  strongest 
manner  to  the  thoughts  and  affections  of  men.  Only  as  Christ  possesses 
all  that  is  involved  in  Thomas'  confession,  "  My  Lord  and  My  God",  has 
he  any  right  to  say  or  any  power  to  enforce,  "  Ye  are  My  friends,  if  ye  do 
whatsoever  I  command  you  ". 

Another  look  at  my  topic,  "  Friendship  with  Christ  through  Obedience 
to  His  Commands"  seems  to  suggest  — 

2nd.     A  reversion  of  the  natural  order. 

Obedience  is  a  product,  not  a  cause.  If  we  have  read  our  New  Testa- 
ment aright  we  have  held  that  Love  is  the  mother  of  obedience  and  at  once 
'a  kindred  passion  to  that  we  are  interpreting  springs  to  the  surface,  "  If 
ye  love  Me,  ye  will  keep  my  commandments"  (John  14:15,  R.  V.),  and 
another  of  similar  import,  "  If  a  man  love  Me,  he  will  keep  my  words  "  (14 :  23) ; 
and  Paul  in  his  famous  and  unequalled  panegyric  of  Love  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  i  Corinthians,  makes  it  the  inner  and  potential  seed  out  of  which 
everything  springs  and  apart  from  which  everything  is  valueless  and  fruit- 
less. And  yet  obedience  as  productive  of  love  finds  weighty  indorsement 
not  only  from  the  passage  before  us,  but  from  others.  Do  we  not  find  in 
the  discussions  and  differences  between  Paul  and  James  as  regards  faith 
and  works,  a  kindred  distinction  to  this  between  love  and  obedience .'' 
James  insists  that  works  are  productive  of  and  necessary  to  the  salvation  of 
men,  while  Paul  insists  that  faith,  and  faith  alone,  is  the  basis  of  man's  ac- 
ceptance with  God.  Jesus  says  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  and  twenty-first 
verse  of  this  Gospel,  "  He  that  hath  My  commands  and  keepeth  them  ;  he  it 
is  that  loveth  Me  ";  he  and  no  one  else,  for  that  is  the  real  significance  of  it. 
The  man  who  has  taken  the  commandments  of  Jesus  into  his  heart,  made 
them  a  part  of  his  very  nature,  woven  them  into  the  very  texture  of  his 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  JESUS  THROUGH  OBEDIENCE.    303 

moral  and  spiritual  being  ;  t/iis  matt  to  whom  the  commandments  of  Jesus 
are  a  delight,  a  joy,  yea,  have  become  the  very  passion  of  his  soul,  "he  it 
is",  and  he  only,  says  Jesus  "-loves  me'\  May  we  not  say  then  that  love 
dictates  obedience,  but  obedience  issues  in  a  higher  love?  There  was  a 
time  in  the  relations  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles  when  He  considered  them 
as  "servants".  IJut  in  the  progress  of  their  intercourse  as  they  grew  to 
know  Him  more  clearly  and  to  discern  His  nature  and  His  mission,  and 
He  to  know  them  more  closely  and  mark  the  steady  growth  of  their  recep- 
tivity and  the  taking  on  of  likeness  to  Himself,  He  recognizes  their  fitness 
for  still  closer  relations,  and  says,  "  Henceforth,  I  call  you  not  servants, 
but  friends  ".     Their  obedience  had  led  up  to  a  higher  friendship. 

The  truest  view,  rather  should  I  say,  the  true  view,  looks  upon  these 
relationships,  not  as  separate  or  as  antagonistic,  but  as  merging  into  a 
higher  unity  and  characterized  by  — 

3rd.     Co-ordinate  and  alternating  interaction. 

Love  incites  obedience ;  obedience  intensifies  love,  and  so  on  througii 
the  varying  experiences  of  life,  deepening  confidences,  developing  friend- 
ship, producing  and  enhancing  likenesses,  changing  from  glory  to  glory  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  And  thus  the  onward,  upward,  outward  processes  of  the 
spiritual  life  move,  bearing  the  soul  steadily  and  blessedly  into  the  deeper 
intimacies  and  mysteries  of  a  friendship  which  has  eternity  for  its  field  of 
action  and  God  for  its  eternal  object.  One  has  likened  this  growth  to  a 
benefactor  who  has  rescued  a  maiden  from  poverty  and  misfortune,  has 
placed  her  in  favorable  conditions,  has  given  her  educational  advantages, 
has  watched  her  remarkable  development  in  intellectual  acquirements,  in 
graces  of  manner,  in  qualities  of  character,  in  all  womanliness  of  nature, 
until  philanthropy  has  changed  into  sympathy,  and  sympathy  into  friend- 
ship, and  friendship  into  affection,  and  affection  has  laid  himself  and  all 
that  he  possesses  at  the  feet  of  his  erstwhile  ward  and  in  wedded  love  the 
highest  happiness  of  life  has  found  expression.  And  so  the  soul,  redeemed 
by  the  philanthropic  love  of  Christ,  won  to  service  by  its  own  great  needs 
and  the  knowledge  of  the  divine  compassion,  responds  in  obedience  and 
enlarges  in  affection  and  becomes  increasingly  worthy  of  confidence  until 
all  the  wealth  of  Deity  —  is  poured  out  upon  it,  the  human  becomes  divine 
and  God  is  all  in  all. 

A  strong  if  not  conclusive  suggestion  of  this  interaction  and  mutual 
dependence  is  seen  when  you  place  in  close  contact  the  cognate  passages, 
"  If  ye  love  Me,  ye  will  keep  My  commands,"  and,  "  If  ye  keep  My  com- 
mandments, ye  shall  abide  in  My  love  ".  Love  leads  to  obedience  and 
obedience  makes  love  permanent,  and  incidentally  here  is  a  sovereign  rem- 
edy for,  or  preventive  of,  the  lamentable  experiences  of  backsliding.  In 
the  equilibrium  of  both  hemispheres,  the  one  of  love  and  the  other  of  obe- 
dience, is  found  the  rounded,  the  completed,  the  symmetrical,  the  balanced, 
the  resplendent  globe  of  finished  Christian  character.  In  these  inter- 
actions may  be  traced  the  shining  stairways  ascending  to  God;  the  grades 
of  growth  in  the  spiritual  processes;  the  rungs  in  the  ladder  from  the  stony 
pastures  of  Bethel  to  the  ladder's  summit,  on  which  stands  God. 


304        .  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

One  other  element,  and  that  the  most  important  remains  to  be  con- 
sidered, and  that  is  — 

4th.     The /(fri'^^fa;/ element. 

This  is  not  a  service  of  things,  nor  of  institutions  however  venerable, 
nor  of  truths  however  definite  and  definitive.  It  is  not  obedience  to  creeds, 
however  logical,  nor  to  churches,  nor  to  Bibles,  nor  to  dogmas,  which  is 
first  demanded  of  man.  His  first  service,  his  primary  summons,  is  to  a  per- 
son :  "  Come  unto  Me'' ;  "As  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power 
to  become  the  Sons  of  God  ".  The  apprehension  and  appreciation  of  Christ, 
philosophically  and  theologically,  both  as  to  His  nature  and  His  work, 
may,  and  do  differentiate  themselves  in  a  thousand  and  one  forms,  but  the 
essential,  vital  thing  is  to  get  to  the  persofi  personally,  to  come  into  contact 
with  the  living,  breathing,  triumphant,  eternal  Christ. 

This  was  the  power  of  apostolic  preaching.  Would  you  have  the  secret 
of  Paul's  impassioned  and  imperial  ministry?  He  takes  no  pains  to  conceal 
it,  but  blazens  it  abroad  in  utterances  that  have  stirred  the  centuries,  in 
words  that  carry  in  themselves  a  deathless  significance.  "  I  know  Him 
whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  guard  that 
which  I  have  committed  unto  Him  against  that  day  "  (2  Tim.  i  :  12,  R.  V.). 
The  dying  Alexander,  Professor  at  Princeton,  recognized  the  majestic 
meaning  of  that  saying,  when,  having  asked  a  friend  to  read  to  him  the  living 
word,  the  friend  read  this  passage:  "I  know  /«  whom  I  have  believed". 
Professor  Alexander  put  his  trembling  hand  upon  the  arm  of  the  reader  and 
whispered,  "Stop,  I  will  not  have  even  a  preposition  between  me  and  my 
Lord  ".  But  still  closer  even  than  this,  and  even  more  significant  of  the 
source  of  Paul's  magnificent  ministry,  is  that  other  utterance,  "I  live;  and 
yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me,  and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh, 
I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God"  (Gal.  2 :  20).  This  personal  love  of 
Jesus  Christ  gave  the  initial  impulse,  the  tidal  force  to  the  message  of  the 
Gospel  as  it  has  come  rolling  down  through  the  centuries.  It  is  the  vin- 
dication of  its  presence  and  its  power  today. 

Dr.  Van  Dyke  sets  this  forth  strongly  when,  speaking  of  the  power  of 
this  Gospel  of  a  Person,  he  says,  "St.  Chrysostom,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 
and  Savonarola  had  it ;  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield  had  it.  In 
different  ages  and  under  different  conditions,  these  men  had  the  primal 
message  which  moves  men  to  believe.  And  in  our  own  age,  under  our  own 
conditions,  a  like  message  has  been  proclaimed  with  power.  Pere  Lacor- 
daire  preached  such  a  message  in  Notre  Dame,  and  Canon  Liddon  in  St. 
Paul's  to  listening  thousands.  Bishop  Brooks  made  it  thrill  like  a  celestial 
music  through  the  young  manhood  of  America,  and  Dwight  L.  Moody  has 
spoken  it  with  vigorous  directness  in  every  great  city  that  knows  the  English 
tongue.  One  thing  only  is  the  same  in  all  of  them  and  that  is,  the  source  of 
their  power.  Their  central  message,  the  core  of  their  preaching,  is  the 
piercing,  moving,  personal  Gospel  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Son  of  God  and 
Saviour  of  mankind.  This,  in  its  simplest  form ;  this  in  its  clearest  expres- 
sion ;  this  presentation  of  a  persoti  to  persons  in  order  that  they  may  first 


FRIENDSHIP  WITH  JESUS  THROUGH  OBEDIENCE.  305 

know,  and  thus  love  and  trust  and  follow  Him — this  is  pre-eminently  the 
Gospel  for  an  age  of  doubt ". 

In  this  summing  up  of  the  contents  of  his  great  book,  Dr.  Van 
Dyke  only  expresses  the  simple  truth.  In  this  fact  of  personal  contact  with 
the  personal  Christ  lies  the  hope  of  the  race.  Every  individual,  rich  or 
poor,  learned  or  unlearned,  master  or  slave,  Saxon  or  Slav,  male  or  female, 
Jew  or  Gentile,  can  come  directly,  personally  to  Jesus  Christ  and  He  meets 
him  on  his  own  level.  Is  he  the  hardened,  cruel,  pitiless  jailer  at  Philippi  ? 
Jesus  meets  him  in  the  midnight  hour  and  before  morning  gives  him  the 
new  name  and  the  white  stone.  Is  he  the  cultured,  religious,  phylactery- 
wearing  Pharisee,  who  under  cover  of  darkness  seeks  the  Master  ?  Jesus 
meets  him  with  the  statement  that  "  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
wilderness,  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Hiyn  should  not  perish  but  have  eternal  life  ",  and  in  the  Sanhedrin,  this 
man,  in  the  very  face  of  the  Lord's  enemies  befriended  Him,  and  when  His 
sacred  body  was  laid  in  the  solemn  tomb,  it  was  Nicodemus  who  brought  a 
hundred  pound  weight  of  myrrh  and  aloes  that  he  might  attest  his  loving 
friendship  for  his  Lord.  Is  it  the  blind  man  at  the  gate  of  Jericho  that  cries 
out  in  his  wretchedness,  "Thou  Son  of  David,  have  mercy  upon  me!"? 
The  Master  speaks,  and  lo,  the  blind  man  sees,  and  there  bursts  upon  his 
astonished  gaze  the  beauties  of  the  earth,  the  sea  and  the  glorious  heaven, 
and  better  than  these,  the  faces  of  friends,  of  children  and  of  wife,  and  best 
of  all,  the  radiant  face  of  Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Healer  and  Saviour  of  men. 
Is  it  contemplative  Nathaniel  sitting  under  the  fig  tree  ?  He  responds  at 
once  to  the  evidences  inhering  in  the  Master,  and  cries  out,  "  Rabbi,  Thou 
art  the  Son  of  God,  Thou  art  the  King  of  Israel !  "  And  so  it  has  been 
through  the  centuries.  Whatever  divergencies  of  thought  and  divisions 
ecclesiastical,  the  irenic  ground  on  which  all  could  stand  in  sympathies  and 
in  mutual  appreciation,  has  been  that  of  personal  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  personal  contact  in  profoundest  experiences  and  spiritual  illuminations 
with  the  Lord  Christ.  Out  of  the  depths  of  these  personal  experiences 
and  these  divine  friendships,  men  have  spoken  with  power  to  their  fellow- 
men,  for  they  have  spoken  of  that  which  they  have  seen  and  heard,  of  Him 
with  whom  they  have  had  sweetest  communion,  and  through  whose  power 
manifested  in  them,  they  have  stormed  intrenchments  and  pulled  down 
strongholds,  driven  back  the  armies  of  the  aliens,  marched  triumphantly 
across  life's  battlefield,  and  at  length  have  furled  their  victorious  banners 
by  the  great  white  throne.  It  is  because  of  "  having  not  seen,  they  love, 
and  in  whom,  though  seeing  Him  not,  they  believe  ",  that  He  takes  them 
into  this  divinest  friendship,  this  holiest  intimacy,  and  makes  known  to 
them  the  resources  of  His  Kingdom,  the  infinite  wealth  of  His  own  nature, 
and  still  says  to  them,  "  Eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have 
entered  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  Him  ". 

Such  friendship  transforms  obedience  into  passionate  service  and 
makes  life  all  luminous  with  the  presence  and  power  of  God. 


*  "THAT  THEY  ALL  MAY  BE  ONE." 

(St.  John  17.) 
by  hknry  t.  ko^vler,  fh.  r>.. 

Professor    of    Biblical    Literature   and    History    in    Brown    University, 

Providence,  R.  I. 

In  that  unique  composition,  the  interpretation  of  which  occupies  these 
Conferences,  there  are  dominant  notes  and  chords — the  grace  and  truth 
that  came,  light  and  darkness,  life  and  death,  the  Father,  Saviour,  Com- 
forter— and  these  have  been  struck  by  skilled  hands  during  the  past 
months.     Today  I  would  touch  on  a  minor  theme  in  the  Gospel. 

As  I  understand  the  purpose  of  those  who  have  instituted  these  gather- 
ings, it  is,  in  part,  to  secure  interdenominational  sympathy  by  common  study 
and  meditation  upon  a  portion  of  Scripture  which  gives  the  deepest  insight 
into  the  heart-life  of  Christ  and  the  Father.  In  part,  the  purpose  is  to 
bring  together  professional  students  of  the  Bible,  with  preachers  and  peo- 
ple, for  that  communion  which  must  develop  when  men  speak  often  together 
of  the  Lord  whom  they  love,  even  as  he  is  revealed  in  this  wonderful  Fourth 
Gospel.  If  I  am  right  in  my  apprehension  of  the  purpose  in  this  Con- 
ference, is  not  the  thought  which  is  so  prominent  in  the  seventeenth 
chapter  of  John,  the  thought  of  unity,  a  peculiarly  appropriate  one  for  our 
consideration  ? 

The  conception  of  unity  between  Christ  and  the  Father  is  a  prominent 
element  throughout  the  Gospel  of  John  from  the  opening  section,  where 
the  Word  is  declared  to  have  been  with  God  from  the  beginning,  on 
through  such  assertions  as  "I  and  the  Father  are  one"  (10:30),  "I  have  • 
kept  my  Father's  commandments  and  abide  in  his  love"  (15:10),  and 
through  such  appeals  as,  "  If  you  do  not  believe  me  believe  the  works,  that 
you  may  know  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in  me,  or  else 
through  the  very  works  believe"  (14:10,  11).  Through  these,  on  to  the 
last  discourse  and  prayer  before  the  betrayal,  we  may  trace  this  theme, 
coming  out  again  and  again. 

The  unity  between  Christ  and  the  disciple,  too,  appears  somewhat, 
even  outside  of  the  seventeenth  chapter, — "  He  that  abideth  in  me  and  I  in 
him,  this  one  beareth  much  fruit,  because  apart  from  me  ye  are  not  able  to 
do  anything".  Another  phase  of  unity,  that  of  man  with  man,  is  also  pre- 
sented here  and  there  in  John's  Gospel.  It  appears  in  the  picture  of  one 
fold,  one  shepherd  (10  :  16),  or  "  the  gathering  together  into  one  the  children 


*  Delivered  at  the  Sixth  Conference,  held  at  the  Trinity  Union  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  March 
9,  1904. 

306 


THA  T  THE  Y  ALL  MA  V  BE  ONE.  307 

of  God  that  are  scattered  abroad  "  (11:52).  The  bond  of  triple  unity  is 
likewise  emphasized,  "  If  ye  keep  my  commandments  ye  shall  abide  in  my 
love,  even  as  I  have  kept  my  Father's  commandments  and  abide  in  his 
love"  (15:10).  We  find,  then,  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  unity  of  Christ 
and  the  Father,  the  unity  of  Christ  and  the  disciples,  the  unity  of  the  dis- 
ciples with  each  other,  and  the  bond  of  this  threefold  unity. 

Paul,  as  well,  emphasizes  the  necessity  of  unity  among  the  followers  of 
Christ.  He  beseeches  them  to  walk  worthily  of  their  vocation,  endeavor- 
ing to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace,  urges  upon  them 
their  one  hope,  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  God  and  Father 
above  all,  through  all,  and  in  them  all  (Eph.  4  :3  ff).  For  the  Romans  he 
prays  that  they  may  be  of  the  same  mind  one  with  another,  according  to 
Christ  Jesus.  The  writer  of  Acts  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  multitude  of 
them  that  believed  were  of  one  heart  and  one  soul.  The  thought  of  the 
unity  of  Christians  and  its  bond  in  the  common  hope  and  common  Lord, 
is,  indeed,  confined  to  no  one  chapter  and  to  no  one  writer  in  the  New 
Testament,  but  this  comes  nowhere  else  to  such  beautiful  and  complete 
expression,  I  think,  as  in  the  chapter  which  we  are  to  consider  this 
afternoon. 

The  constantly  widening  circles  of  inclusiveness  in  the  divine  prayer, 
recorded  in  John  17,  give  opportunity  to  develop  the  complex  relations  of 
the  theme  with  all  possible  clearness.  In  the  opening  verses,  when  Jesus 
prays  for  himself,  his  essential  and  eternal  oneness  with  the  Father  is 
assumed^ — "  I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest  me  to  do.  And 
now,  O  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self,  with  the  glory  which 
I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was  ".  The  circumference  of  the  peti- 
tion soon  widens  to  include  those  to  whom  Christ  had  manifested  his 
Father's  name,  to  whom  he  has  given  the  words  which  were  given  him, 
who  have  known  that  he  came  out  from  the  Father  and  have  believed  that 
God  sent  him.  As  he  contemplates  his  departure  from  the  world,  view- 
ing it  as  though  it  were  already  accomplished,  he  prays,  "And  now  I  am 
no  more  in  the  world,  but  these  are  in  the  world,  and  I  come  to  thee. 
Holy  Father  keep  them  in  thy  name,  which  thou  has  given  me,  that  they 
may  be  one  as  we  are  one  ".  The  next  verse  makes  even  more  definite  the 
ground  of  his  anxiety  for  them,  "  While  I  was  with  them  in  the  world  I 
kept  them  in  thy  name  ". 

With  the  widening  of  the  prayer  to  include  his  followers,  as  well  as 
himself,  the  unity  of  Jesus  with  God,  which  has  been  his  strength  and 
power  through  all  the  years,  becomes  the  norm  of  the  union  which  must 
exist  among  the  disciples  now  that  their  leader  is  to  depart  and  leave  them 
in  the  world, — "  Keep  them  in  thy  name  that  they  may  be  one  as  we  are  ". 
Marcus  Dods  explains  this  phrase,  "  Keep  them  in  thy  name,  that  they 
may  be  one ",  as  meaning  that  the  retention  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Father  which  Christ  had  imparted  to  them  would  make  them  one.  The 
narne  seems  to  be  the  knowledge  of  the  Father  which  had  been  given  to 
Christ  for  revelation  to  the  disciples,  and  this  knowledge  it  is  that  will  make 
them  one,  as  Christ  and  God  are  one. 


3o8  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

In  commenting  upon  the  inaugural  vision  of  Isaiah,  George  Adam 
Smith  exclaims:  "The  vision  of  God — this  is  the  one  thing  needful  for 
worship  and  for  conduct".  That  seems  to  be  nearly  the  thought  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  verses  here,  if  we  adopt  the  older  text,  on  which  the 
Revisers'  translation  is  based,  not  "Keep  through  thine  own  name  those 
whom  thou  'hast  given  me  ",  but  "  Keep  them  in  thy  name,  which  (name) 
thou  hast  given  me  ".  "  While  I  was  with  them  I  kept  them  in  thy  name, 
which  (name)  thou  hast  given  me,  and  I  guarded  them  ".  The  name,  we 
know,  signified  quite  generally  in  Biblical  writings  the  attribute,  the  function, 
or  character.  If  the  Christian  church  could  but  have  kept  with  singleness 
of  vision  in  the  7iame  of  God,  that  is  in  the  knowledge  of  his  character  and 
work  as  the  one  thing  needful,  its  history  would  have  been  far  other  than 
one  of  so  much  discord ;  then  we  might  have  been  one,  even  as  God  and 
Christ.  I  hope  we  are  learning  in  these  latter  days  that  we  may  differ 
about  the  nature  and  manner  of  inspiration  ;  that  we  may  differ  about  forms 
of  government  and  forms  of  worship,  even  about  forms  of  ordinances  or 
the  exact  method  of  salvation,  and  yet  may  be  one  in  his  name;  one  in 
the  effort  to  know  God  ;  one  in  our  faith  that  whatever  else  may  be  revealed 
to  us  or  not  revealed,  we  have  a  revelation  of  God  in  his  name,  in  his 
essential  character. 

Again  the  circle  of  Christ's  loving  prayer  widens,  "  Neither  for  these 
only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them  also  that  believe  on  me  through  their  word, 
that  they  may  all  be  one,  even  as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me  and  I  in  thee, 
that  they  also  may  be  in  us  ".  As  Meyer  says,  "  This  ethical  unity,  to  be 
specifically  Christian,  must  correj^pond  to  its  original  type,  'Eveyi  as  thou 
Father,  art  in  me  and  I  in  thee'".  We  have  noted  already  how,  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  abiding  in  the  Father's  love  is  the  state  of  that  unity 
(15  :  10,  1 1),  doing  the  Father's  works  is  the  expression,  nay,  it  would  seem, 
the  proof  of  that  unity  (10  :  38).  The  prayer  is  that  all  who  believe  through 
the  word  of  the  disciples  may  live  and  move  in  the  Father  and  Christ  as 
they  in  each  other. 

Thus  the  thought  advances,  enlarging  in  the  inclusiveness  of  its  hope 
for  Christian  fellowship,  and  then  it  rises  to  a  higher  plane,  in  the  thought 
of  the  possible  grace  that  can  effect  such  inconceivable  union, — "And  the 
glory  which  thou  hast  given  me,  I  have  given  unto  them,  that  they  may 
be  one  even  as  we  are  one  ". 

What  is  this  glory  given  by  Christ  to  make  believers  one,  even  as  God 
and  he  are  one  ?  Perhaps  we  cannot  answer  with  certainty.  Many  have 
been  the  suggestions  from  the  days  of  the  fathers  onward.  Their  very 
number  indicates  the  wide  variety  of  aspects  that  the  Christian's  glory  dis- 
plays— the  glory  of  the  apostolic  office  (Chrysostom),  the  glory  of  the 
Christian  life,  of  the  life  of  Christ  in  believers,  of  sonship,  of  love,  of  grace 
and  truth,  or  the  glory  on  which  the  believers  are  to  enter  at  the  coming  of 
Christ.  It  has  even  been  ventured  to  interpret  glory  here  as  the  same  as 
that  in  v.  5,  "O  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self  with  the 
glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was",  or  in  v.  24,  "I  would 


THAT  THEY  ALL  MA  Y  BE  ONE.  309 

that  where  I  am  they  also  may  be  with  me  ;  that  they  may  behold  my  glory 
which  thou  hast  given  me  ".  If  this  be  the  true  interpretation,  then  the 
words  in  v.  22  carry  us  far  indeed,  to  the  glory  which  cannot  be  com- 
pletely and  actually  bestowed  until  we  are  where  he  is, — "And  the  glory 
which  thou  hast  given  unto  me  I  have  given  unto  them,  that  they  may  be 
one  even  as  we  are  one ;  I  in  them  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  per- 
fected into  one".  We  may  well  join  in  the  exclamation,  "What  a  strong 
bond  of  unity  must  lie  in  the  sure  warrant  of  fellowship  in  eternal  glory!  " 

We  have  traced  imperfectly  this  increasing  thought  through  the  widen- 
ing circles  of  the  chapter.  To  recapitulate  briefly :  Christ's  unity  with  God 
is  assumed  as  he  prays,  thinking  first  of  his  immediate  departure  to  the 
glory  which  he  had  with  God  before  the  world  was.  Next  he  passes  to 
those  who  are  left  in  the  world  unguarded,  and  his  unity  with  the  Father 
becomes  the  standard  of  their  unity  with  one  another,  in  which  they  are  to 
be  preserved  in  the  name  of  God  revealed  by  Christ.  The  thought  next 
includes  all  who  are  to  come  after,  and  the  same  standard  of  union  with 
one  another  is  anticipated  for  this  vast  company.  Then  the  hope  expands 
to  include  not  only  union  of  man  with  man,  like  the  union  of  Christ  with 
God,  but  the  growing,  deepening  vision  adds  to  the  prayer  that  they  all 
may  be  one,  the  fuller  hope  that  in  this  unity  they  may  be  in  God  and 
Christ  as  the  Father  is  in  Christ  and  Christ  in  the  Father.  At  last  the 
divine  prayer  takes  wings.  With  the  thought  of  the  glory  that  had  been 
given  to  him,  and  which  he  had  already,  in  his  loving  purpose,  poured  out 
upon  man,  comes  the  final  stage  of  the  vision  we  are  following, — "  I  in  them 
and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one  ". 

We  may  observe  that  in  this  latter  part,  another  thought  of  John's  Gos- 
pel appears  inwoven  with  that  which  we  have  considered :  "That  they  all 
may  be  oae,  in  order  that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou  didst  send 
me".  In  earlier  chapters  we  have  seen  Christ  appealing  for  belief  in  him- 
self because  of  what  he  is;  but  if  his  personality  fails  to  win  conviction, 
deminding  belief  because  of  the  works  he  does,  the  works  of  the  Father 
(10:38;  14:10,  11).  Now  his  audible  voice  and  visible  hand  are  no  more 
to  work  the  works  of  God  among  men.  He  is  no  more  to  move  among 
men  in  physical  presence,  winning  them  as  his  divine  character  expresses 
itself  in  his  hainin  personality.  After  coming  out  from  the  upper  room, 
he  had  given  his  disciples  a  badge  by  which  they  might  be  known  as  his 
followers.  (Read  John  13:33-35.)  Now  in  the  prayer  we  advance  to  the 
thought  that  this  unity,  which  he  anticipated  for  all  believers,  shall  be  the 
leajible  record  to  the  world,  not  oaly  that  they  are  disciples,  but  that  he, 
their  Master,  was  sent  from  God,  Even  after  the  final  expression,  that  they 
may  be  perfected  into  one,  the  result,  that  the  world  may  know  "  that  thou 
didst  send  me,  and  lovedst  them,  even  as  thou  lovedst  me  ",  is  again  enforced. 

I  have  drawn  out  to  view  only  one  or  two  threads  of  "the  wonderful 
weaving  of  this  seventeenth  chapter  of  John,  which  has  been  styled  "  The 
simplest  in  language,  the  profoundest  in  meaning  in  the  whole  Bible  ". 
That  which  might  be  called  the  central  thought  of  this  chapter  has  hardly 


3IO  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

been  alluded  to,  but  the  few  verses  considered  may  open  to  the  attentive 
eye  prophetic  visions  of  possibilities  for  humanity  which  stagger  the  imagina- 
tion. We  can  see  how  such  truths  overwhelmed  the  great  soul  of  Paul 
when  he  wrote  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  of  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ;  in  that  third  chapter  the  mystery  of  it  all  finds  such  wonder- 
ful expression  :  the  riches  of  his  glory,  the  possibility  of  Christ's  dwelling 
in  their  hearts,  the  length  and  breadth  and  depth  and  height,  the  love  of 
Christ  passing  knowledge,  the  fulness  of  God  who  is  able  to  do  above  all 
that  we  can  ask  or  think.  Paul's  great  soul  was  flooded  when  the  possi- 
bility of  Christ's  dwelling  in  men's  hearts  swept  over  him. 

Such,  Christian  friends,  is  the  possibility  for  humanity  pictured  in  this 
seventeenth  chapter  of  John.  We  have  all  contemplated  it  before,  our 
eyes  have  grown  accustomed  to  the  light,  perhaps,  so  that  it  no  longer  daz- 
zles, and  yet,  if  we  stop  and  look  once  and  again,  we  may  see  here  the  very 
face  of  God  shining  out  between  dark  clouds  of  human  sin  and  weakness. 
On  the  one  side  stands  the  record  of  the  betrayer  gone  out  into  the  night; 
on  the  other,  the  trial  and  death.  And  so  down  through  the  history,  even 
to  our  own  day,  this  light  from  God  shines  out,  showing  to  man  the  possi- 
bility of  a  life  at  one  with  God  and  man,  the  possibility  of  a  witness  for 
Christ  that  cavil  can  not  gainsay ;  and  all  through  the  history  follow  the 
black  clouds  on  either  side,  the  clouds  of  betrayal,  denial  and  crucifixion, 
for  we  have  not  been  one  as  God  and  Christ  are  one,  we  are  not  yet  per- 
fected into  one,  that  the  world  may  know  that  God  sent  Christ  to  make 
men  at  one  with  their  fellow  men  and  at  one  with  their  God. 

If  we  view  the  ideal  held  before  us  in  this  vision  of  Christ  and  then 
view  conditions  as  they  are  or  have  been,  it  may  seem  that  the  prayer  of 
Christ  can  never  be  answered ;  but  the  signs  are  surely  about  us  that  we 
are  at  last  beginning  to  turn  toward  a  developing  into  unity.  May  we  not 
read  in  the  history  of  the  church  that  is  now  making  about  us  the  promise 
that  all  who  believe  through  the  spread  of  the  apostolic  word  will  at  last  be 
perfected  into  one  ? 

I  am  not  discussing  the  detailed  question  of  the  advantages  of  unity  or 
of  multiplicity  in  church  organization  and  creed.  I  have  faith  that  when 
at  last  we  cease  to  fight  against  God's  keeping  us  simply  in  his  name, 
those  questions  will  be  decided  in  accordance  with  the  need  of  that  future 
age,  and  just  what  that  need  may  be  human  wisdom  today  can  hardly 
venture  to  affirm.  Rather  I  would  desire  that  the  words  of  this  prayer,  in 
their  depth  and  simplicity,  might  ring  on  and  ring  ever  in  our  hearts,  that 
no  one  of  us  may  have  any  part  in  delaying  the  answer  to  the  prayer.  God 
help  each  one  of  us  so  to  live  in  our  place  that  we  may  speed  the  day  when 
all  shall  be  one,  even  as  God  and  Christ  are  one. 


•  THE   UNITY  OF   CHRISTIANITY    AS  REVEALED   IN  THE   PRAYER 

OF  CHRIST. 

(St.  John  17,) 

by  rk'v.  henry  s.  nash,  d.  d., 

Professor  of  New  Testament  Interpretation   in  the  Episcopal  Theological 
School,  Camhridc.e,  Mass. 

I  shrink  from  trying  to  lead  your  study  of  this  great  chapter.  There 
comes  into  my  mind  a  saying  of  the  great  German  pietist,  Spener,  that  he 
never  presumed  to  preach  from  a  text  taken  from  this  chapter.  But  I 
guard  myself  against  the  strength  of  this  quotation  by  venturing  to  think 
that  he  did  not  have  the  right  idea  about  the  house  of  God.  His  con- 
ception of  the  mysteries  of  God  reminds  me  of  certain  houses  wherein 
children  are  not  expected  to  play  for  fear  they  will  break  the  furniture.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  house  of  the  Lord  God  has  been  built  upon  that 
plan.  I  do  believe  that  the  Lord  is  willing  to  take  the  risk  of  a  certain 
amount  of  broken  furniture  in  his  house,  to  the  end  that  his  children  may 
learn  to  play,  if  they  fully  remember  that  they  are  playing,  and  do  not  pre- 
sume to  put  on  the  airs  of  popes  in  his  house. 

Before  one  enters  the  chapter  there  are  certain  features  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel  of  which  I  trust  you  will  permit  me  to  remind  you.  The  first  one 
is  that,  according  to  John,  the  Gospel  is  the  mind  of  Christ.  This  book 
among  all  the  books  that  have  ever  been  penned  by  man  is  the  most 
singular  in  its  monotony,  if  one  chooses  to  use  that  word.  Nothing 
happens, —  one  may  venture  to  say, —  in  the  Fourth  Gospel;  nothing 
happens,  but  everything  is.  The  whole  Gospel  is  the  mind  of  Jesus. 
From  that  point  of  view  it  is  exceedingly  becoming  and  beautiful  that  the 
culmination  of  the  self-revelation  of  Jesus  should  be  a  prayer.  For  prayer, 
when  we  come  rightly  to  understand  it  is  the  deepest  of  all  our  thinking. 
That,  of  course,  is  not  true  regarding  the  bulk  of  our  prayers.  I  fancy  that 
regarding  the  large  part  of  our  prayers  the  child's  opinion  about  praying  is 
largely  true.  You  know  what  the  child  is  apt  to  think  about  prayers.  He 
believes  that  praying  is  an  easy  way  to  get  things.  The  average  child 
thinks  that  prayer  is  a  substitute  for  hard  work.  And  I  am  not  sure  but 
that  one  carries  that  conception  of  prayer  a  good  way  on  his  pilgrimage 
through  time  and  space.  But  prayer  rightly  understood  is  the  deepest  of 
our  thinking,  it  is  the  severest  of  all  our  labors.  The  very  last  petition  of 
our  life  is  "  Lord,  teach  me  to  pray ".  "  Teach  me  to  pray,  I  care  not 
what  else  Thou  givest  or  takest  away,  teach  me  to  pray  ",  we  say  to  the 
Master. 

*  Delivered  at  the   Seventh  Conference,  held   at   the  Ceiitral   Congregational  Church,  April  13,1904. 

3" 


312  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

So  it  follows,  if  we  understand  prayer  aright,  that  it  is  natural  that  in 
this  wonderful  book,  the  final  self-revelation  of  the  Master  should  be  a 
prayer.  What  happens  to  us  when  we  truly  pray  ?  Why  this  is  what 
happens,  the  divine  and  the  human  come  together.  It  is  in  prayer,  if  it  be 
vital,  and  in  prayer  alone,  that  we  know  what  revelation  is.  We  do  a  little 
talking,  but  very  little  do  we  feel  about  vital  praying,  about  vital  revela- 
tion. But  so  far  as  we  feel  revelation  with  our  hearts  as  well  as  theorize 
about  it  with  our  heads,  it  is  in  those  rarer  moments  of  real  praying 
that  we  feel  it,  because  it  is  in  prayer  that  the  mind  of  God  presses  irre- 
sistibly upon  our  minds ;  and  it  is  in  prayer  that  the  word  of  God  makes 
of  our  thought  its  medium,  and  through  our  lives  publishes  itself  in  terms 
of  our  experience.  And  therefore  it  is  with  noble  propriety  that  in  this 
book  the  last  word  of  the  self-revelation  of  the  Master  should  be  a  prayer. 

As  we  enter  the  chapter,  this  one  thing  should  be  carefully  remem- 
bered regarding  it,  namely:  that  the  Master's  mood  is  not  one  of  sorrow, 
but  rather  one  of  triumphant  peace  and  joy.  A  good  many  of  the  standard 
commentaries  on  this  book  have  gone  astray  at  this  point,  in  that  they  have 
found  here  and  there  a  suggestion  of  melancholy  in  the  Master's  mood. 
But  the  key  to  this  chapter  is  the  last  verse  of  the  sixteenth  chapter,  and 
the  key-word  there  is  the  word  "peace".  It  is  therefore  in  the  mood  of 
triumphant  self-possession  and  exulting  certitude  that  we  enter  chapter  17. 

In  the  first  verse  Jelus  says  to  His  Father,  "The  hour  is  come, 
glorify  Thy  Son,  that  Thy  Son  may  glorify  Thee  ".  Now  we  must  be  careful 
to  get  that  word  glory  by  the  right  handle.  What  does  it  mean  ?  To 
glorify  God  means,— does  it  not? — to  make  Him  intelligible.  To  glorify  a 
great  picture  is  to  make  it  intelligible,  to  interpret  it.  To  glorify  a  great 
man  by  some  splendid  biography  is  to  make  the  man's  mind  and  purpose 
plain  to  his  fellows.  So,  there  is  but  one  way  to  glorify  God,  and  that  is  to 
make  His  mind  plain  to  His  servants  and  children.  To  glorify  God  is  to 
make  His  being  and  will  intelligible  to  His  children.  Naturally,  then,  this 
is  the  way  that  Jesus  sums  up  His  work.  He  has  made  the  mind  of  God 
luminous  and  intelligible  to  man.  So  His  prayer  is  that  God  may  glorify 
Him,  that  is  to  say,  that  God  may  crown  Jesus  as  the  interpreter  of  God  to 
man.  Now  is  not  this  what  we  mean  when  we  call  Him  the  Saviour  ? 
How  are  we  saved?  Why,  we  are  saved  by  understanding  God.  We  are 
saved  by  understanding  what  is  deepest  in  life  and  God  is  the  deepest 
thing  in  life.  Salvation  consists  in  apprehending  God's  mind  about  us, 
and  Christ's  prayer  is  that  God  may  crown  Him  with  the  single  glory  of 
being  accepted  by  man  as  the  interpreter  of  God  to  man. 

In  vs.  2,  3,  we  are  given  Christ's  definition  of  eternal  life.  "This  is 
life  eternal  that  men  may  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  Thou  hast  sent  ".  Now  let  us  try  to  give  to  ourselves  a  simple  defini- 
tion of  what  we  mean  by  eternal  life.  What  I  mean  by  it  is  a  kind  of  life 
wherein  life  completely  controls  the  machinery  of  life.  That,  to  me,  is  the 
life  eternal,  a  kind  of  life  so  rich  and  deep  that  life  controls  its  machinery. 
One  does  not  realize  eternal  life  very  often  in  this  world,  but  once  in 


THE  UNITY  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  313 

a  while  one  does  realize  it,  live  it  out.  There  are  certain  rare  moments 
when  the  machinery  of  life  is  totally  lost  sight  of  in  living:  and  life  eternal, 
simply  defined  and  apprehended,  is  just  the  art  of  so  living  that  all  the 
machinery  of  life  is  controlled  by  life  itself.  As  a  rule,  we  Christians  so 
live  that  the  machinery  controls  life.  Any  pastor  who  does  not  know  this 
knows  very  little  about  his  trade.  It  is  the  disease  of  the  ministry — we 
ministers  know  it  to  our  shame — it  is  the  disease  of  the  ministry  that  the 
machinery  of  the  ministry  oftentimes  controls  and  dominates  the  life  of  the 
minister.  Committees  and  societies  of  all  kinds  sometimes  take  the  heart 
out  of  a  minister.  But  there  are  rare  moments  when  life  controls  all  the 
machinery  of  life,  and  that  is  what  we  mean  by  the  life  eternal.  So,  life 
eternal  is  to  know  deeply  the  mind  of  God  as  Jesus  publishes  it,  and  only 
so  can  one  have  eternal  life. 

The  central  thought  in  the  next  section  into  which  I  have  divided  the 
chapter  for  the  purpose  tonight,  namely,  vs.  4-8,  is  the  thought  of  the 
church.  The  language  here  does  not  use  the  term  church.  Sometimes  the 
best  way  of  thinking  about  a  thing  is  not  to  name  it.  Jesus  had  not  read 
Hobbes.  But  He  was  too  great  a  teacher  not  to  know  the  law  which 
Hobbes  lays  down,  that  words  are  wise  men's  counters  and  the  money  of 
fools.  The  best  way,  sometimes,  to  think  about  a  great  thing  is  not  to  give 
it  a  definite  name,  for,  when  once  you  have  named  it,  you  are  apt  to  think 
that  you  know  it.  How  amusing  it  is  sometimes  to  watch  children.  They 
come  up  to  you  with  a  problem  and  ask  you  to  name  it,  and  the  moment 
you  name  it  you  settle  it  for  them,  and  they  put  it  aside.  Names  are  some- 
times the  soporific  of  thought,  so  it  is  well  that  the  church  should  appear 
here  in  thought  and  not  in  name. 

I  venture  to  think  that  the  thought  of  the  section  is  this :  the  ultimate 
heresy  is  our  unwillingness  or  inability  or  incompetency  to  believe  the  best 
things  about  ourselves.  Now,  at  first  blush,  that  may  seem  a  very  foolish 
assertion  to  make.  Slow  to  believe  the  best  things  about  ourselves  ?  Why, 
are  we  not  filled  with  egotism }  Are  we  not  consumed  with  pride  and 
vain  glory  ?  Do  we  not  spend  our  lives  in  mutual  admiration  societies 
on  the  basis  that  we  are  to  say  pleasant  things  about  other  people 
with  the  understanding  that  they  will  reciprocate  by  saying  pleasant  things 
about  us  ?  And  does  not  the  church  resemble  such  a  society  ?  Is  it  not  an 
absurd  thing  to  say  that  we  are  slow  and  unwilling  to  believe  the  best 
things  about  ourselves  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  It  depends  upon  what  we  mean 
by  the  "  best  things  ".  The  best  things  are  righteousness  and  truth,  and 
they  mean  unlimited  capacity  for  God  and  the  good.  This  we  are  very 
slow  to  believe  in  and  trust  ourselves  to.  But  this  is  the  very  essence  of 
the  Christian  church,  to  teach  men  to  believe  the  very  best  things  about 
humanity.  For  the  church  rests  upon  the  Incarnation,  and  unless  the 
Incarnation  is  a  big  word  covering  up  a  very  small  meaning,  this  is  the  sum 
and  substance  of  it.  It  is  God's  way  of  teaching  us  that  God  believes  that 
we,  sons  of  God,  are  capable  of  understanding  God,  of  imitating  Him,  and 
of  obeying  Him  to  the  uttermost.     That  is  what  the  church  of  God  is,  a 


3 14  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

society  which  Christ  has  ordained  to  make  men  believe  the  very  best  things 
about  themselves. 

In  the  next  section  of  the  chapter,  vs.  9-1 1,  the  central  thought  is  that 
it  is  through  the  church  that  Christ  is  to  be  glorified.  "  I  have  been  glori- 
fied in  them  ",  He  says.  That  is  to  say,  without  the  church,  Christ  is  as  a 
man  whose  right  arm  is  gone.  Without  the  church,  the  Incarnation  is  like 
a  blow  under  the  water.  The  church  is  Christ's  means  of  making  His 
mind  intelligible  to  the  human  race.  And  the  church  is  to  look  to  it  that 
she  does  not,  by  her  false  definition  of  God,  by  her  false  conception  of 
authority,  by  her  false  conception  of  unity,  rob  her  Lord  of  His  crown. 
And  she  robs  God  of  His  crown  when  she  puts  her  interpretations  of  Christ 
between  Him  and  the  race  He  is  seeking  to  save. 

In  the  next  section  of  the  chapter,  vs.  12-18,  there  are  two  main 
thoughts,  that  is,  two  main  thoughts  for  my  purpose  at  this  moment.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  thought  of  Christ's  joy  as  being  fulfilled  in  those  who 
believe  in  Him.  Now,  what  is  Christ's  joy  ?  I  believe  there  are  two  ele- 
ments in  it,  and  that  ultimately  there  are  two  elements  in  the  joy  of  every 
imitator  of  Christ.  First  of  all,  it  is  the  joy  of  a  man  who  believes  with  all 
his  heart  in  God.  I  repeat,  it  is  the  joy  of  a  man  who  believes  in  God  with 
all  his  heart.  There  is  no  joy  like  that  of  surrender  to  a  great  object.  What 
is  the  true  joy  of  a  seeker  after  truth  ?  That  he  may  find  the  truth  and 
surrender  himself  to  ir.  What  is  the  joy  of  the  artist,  seeker  after  beauty, 
but  to  find  beauty  and  give  himself  to  it?  And  what  is  the  joy  of  the 
soldier  when  he  has  found  the  chance  to  offer  his  life  for  Fatherland,  but  to 
surrender  to  it?  The  joy  of  Christ  is  the  joy  of  complete  surrender  to 
God.     And  this  is  the  joy  of  the  imitator  of  Christ. 

The  other  aspect  of  Christ's  joy  is  that  of  complete  faith  in  man.  I 
repeat,  complete  faith  in  man.  How  apt  we  have  been  to  disconnect  these 
two  things.  Faith  in  God  we  have  been  constantly  talking  about,  but  faith 
in  man,  how  little  we  have  spoken  about  that.  But  we  cannot  separate  the 
two.  What  the  Christ  wanted  to  do  was  to  make  the  two  inseparable  in 
our  thought  and  life.  Complete  faith  in  God  leads  to  absolute  faith  in  man. 
What  joy  is  there  like  unto  the  joy  of  him  who,  believing  perfectly  in  God 
and  in  the  capacity  of  man  for  what  is  best,  can  devote  himself  to  making 
what  is  best  intelligible  to  man  ? 

In  V.  19,  we  come  to  the  deepest  waters  of  the  chapter,  or,  if  one  may 
change  the  figure,  we  come  to  the  summit  point  of  the  context  somewhat 
abruptly.  We  see  the  great  High  Priest  offering  up  to  God  our  humanity, 
which  He  has  taken  upon  Himself.  The  Son  of  God  takes  our  humanity 
upon  Him,  and  by  His  offering  to  God  rids  it  of  its  vanity  and  imperfec- 
tion. We  see  the  Son  of  God  in  His  prayer  to  God  saying  for  us,  "  I  for 
My  friends'  sake  consecrate  Myself".  Now,  what  does  consecration 
mean  ?  The  scientist  consecrates  himself  when  he  absolutely  surrenders 
himself  to  the  energy  and  power  and  law  and  mind  of  this  mighty  universe. 
Christ  consecrates  Himself  when  for  love  of  His  fellow-men  He  absolutely 
surrenders  Himself  to  the  power  and  mind  and  law  of  God.     And  it  is  all 


THE  UNITY  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  315 

done  for  the  church's  sake,  that  the  church,  they  who  call  themselves 
Christians,  may  through  Him  be  consecrated  in  the  truth.  Our  English 
language  here  is  defective  and  at  fault  in  translating  the  Greek,  for  the 
Greek  word  a/et/ieia,  is  a  very  large  word.  We  need  two  words  to  render 
it,  "  truth  "  and  "  reality  ".  This,  then,  is  the  prayer  Christ  makes,  that  we 
may  be  hallowed  and  consecrated  by  complete  self-surrender  to  the  truth 
and  reality  of  God. 

In  the  next  section,  vs.  22,  23,  we  come  upon  the  objective  point  of  the 
chapter,  namely,  Christian  unity.  "  That  they  may  be  one  as  we  are  one  ". 
llow  are  we  to  reach  unity?  God  forbid  that  in  these  days,  which  have  no 
theology,  and  which  are  so  conceited  that  they  think  they  do  not  need  it, — 
God  forbid  that  I  should  say  a  word  to  decry  theology.  For  a  man  who 
goes  about  the  church  today  with  his  eyes  open,  sooner  or  later  must  make 
up  his  mind  that  what  the  church  needs  above  all  things  is  a  sane  theology. 
Just  at  present  our  theology  is  in  a  mental  state  that  might  fairly  be  called 
mush,  and  we  sometimes  call  our  lack  of  clearness  and  definiteness  toler- 
ance and  charity.  We  need  theology.  -You  will  not  misunderstand  me, 
then,  when  I  say  that  we  cannot  reach  unity  through  theology,  if  theology 
be  the  primary  thing;  and  we  cannot  reach  it  through  definition,  if  that 
be  the  primary  thing.  We  need  theology,  but  woe  be  unto  us  if  our  theol- 
ogy masters  us  instead  of  our  mastering  it.  Woe  be  unto  us  if  our  defini- 
tion dominates  us,  for  the  object  of  a  definition  is  to  be  the  tool  and  servant 
of  the  mind.  We  need  our  definition,  but  it  must  be  kept  in  its  proper 
place  and  controlled  by  life.  And  I  take  it  that  the  only  way  in  which  we, 
divergent  members  of  the  body  of  Christ,  can  be  brought  together  is  through 
a  living  revelation.  It  is  well  for  us  that,  temporarily,  we  have  lost  our 
grip  upon  theology.  It  is  well  for  us  that,  at  present,  we  have  lost  our  grip 
upon  definitions,  because  the  end  of  it  all,  if  we  know  and  believe  that 
God's  hand  is  guiding  us,  the  end  of  it  all  will  be  that  we  shall  gain,  some- 
how, through  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  a  mighty  feeling  of  the 
invading  and  penetrating  and  healing  power  of  God.  Experience  is  always 
greater  than  definitions,  and  definitions  must  go  back  into  experience  to  be 
made  over  again.  Our  theology,  our  definitions  and  creeds,  must  descend 
into  the  truth  and  reality  of  God,  if  we  are  to  come  together  and  stay 
together. 

I  must  hasten  on.  The  chapter  closes  with  the  great  word^,  "That 
the  love  wherewith  Thou  hast  loved  Me  may  be  in  them,  and  I  in  them  ". 
It  is  only  through  the  sense  of  the  indwelling  power  of  the  personal  Christ 
that  we  Christians  of  diverging  creeds,  of  widely  diverging  ancestors,  of 
hostile  definitions,  can  come  together.  That  means,  I  take  it,  that  we  must 
all  strip  our  minds  of  our  infallibility.  There  is  nothing  better  than  a  good 
definition,  and  there  is  nothing  more  helpful  than  a  clear  and  sane  theology 
to  keep  the  heads  of  Christians  free  from  vanity  and  sentimental  nonsense. 
But  the  bane  of  theology  and  definition  is  infallibility.  We  have  to  strip 
ourselves  of  that.  I  wonder  if  we  can  do  it.  We  sons  of  men  are  born  to 
infallibility  as  the  sparks  are  to  fiy  upward.     Thus  there  is  a  tremendous 


3i6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

lot  of  infallibility  around.  We  all  believe  we  are  infallible,  though  our 
sister  church,  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  alone  makes  a  profession  of 
it.  Steele's  witty  saying  about  the  difference  between  the  Church  of  Rome 
and  the  Church  of  England  is  worth  quoting  at  this  point.  "  Yes  ",  he  said, 
"  the  Church  of  Rome  is  infallible  and  the  Anglican  Church  is  never  wrong  ". 
That  is  the  difference.  We  are  all  infallible  in  that  sense,  or  pretty 
nearly  so. 

Now  I  wonder  if  we  can  strip  our  minds  of  this  infallibility  which  is 
just  man's  cheap  substitute  for  God's  truth,  man's  cheap  and  easy  substi- 
tute for  God's  reality.  If  we  are  to  reach  anything  like  real  church  unity 
we  must  substitute  the  hard  thing  for  the  easy  thing,  and  the  costly  thing 
for  the  cheap  thing.  But  the  hard  thing  and  the  costly  thing  is  the  real, 
vital  sense  of  the  invading  and  prevading  and  redeeming  revelation  of  the 
living  Christ.  The  easy  thing  is  an  infallible  church,  an  infallible  priest, 
an  infallible  theology.  When  once  we  have  made  up  our  minds  that  we 
have  got  it,  we  can  put  an  insurance  policy  in  our  pocket,  lay  our  heads  on 
our  pillow  and  go  to  sleep ;  and  when  we  wake  up,  we  shall  waste  some  of 
our  time  in  damning  and  excommunicating  those  who  have  not  put  their 
heads  upon  the  same  pillow. 

But  this  is  ecclesiastical  unity ;  the  unity  that  Christ  speaks  of  is  the 
unity  of  Christians  who  have  taken  the  hard  and  costly  thing  for  their  task 
and  heritage.  It  is  the  unity  of  men  who  believe  with  all  their  hearts  in 
God,  and  in  man,  and  who,  by  means  of  that  vital  faith,  keep  their  tra- 
ditions and  their  preferences  under  control.  We  are  not  called  on  to 
belittle  our  traditions.  Mine  are  exceedingly  precious  to  me,  and  so  are 
yours,  I  doubt  not,  to  you,  or  you  would  not  be  here.  But  the  beauty  of  it 
is  that  we  can,  by  the  help  of  the  living  Christ,  make  our  traditions  our 
servants,  keep  them  from  dominating  us.  From  this  point  of  view,  one 
object  of  a  good  definition  is  that  we  may  outgrow  it.  Put  a  definition 
between  you  and  revelation  and  you  block  up  the  entrance  to  revelation, 
you  shut  yourself  off  from  its  growth  and  stunt  yourself.  But  keep  your 
definition  under  control,  and  then  it  is  a  road  over  which  you  go  to  a 
wider  definition,  if  it  please  God  to  let  you  live  long  enough  to  find  it. 
Your  difference  from  your  fellow  Christian  will  inspire  you  to  seek  for  your 
unity  with  him.  Then  you  will  thank  God  that  all  Christians  do  not  think 
as  you  think.  You  will  convert  what  you  honestly  believe  to  be  your 
superiority  over  him  into  a  means  of  approach  to  him.  You  will  learn  that 
in  the  kingdom  of  God  as  Christ  has  built  it,  the  objective  point  is  differ- 
ence in  unity.  We  are  to  abound  in  our  differences  from  one  another. 
We  are  not  to  be  ashamed  of  that  aspect  of  truth  which  the  living  God  hath 
disclosed  to  us.  Rather  we  are  to  be  proud  of  it,  to  publish  it  by  every 
means  in  our  power.  But  we  shall  control  it.  We  will  not  let  it  control  us. 
The  love  of  God  is  in  us  all.  His  living  revelation  fills  our  hearts. 
Because  we  differ,  we  agree  to  glorify  Him  who  causes  us  to  differ.  So, 
shall  He,  like  the  master  of  a  great  chorus,  bring  out  of  our  diverse  tradi- 
tions and  interpretations,  a  grand  hymn  of  praise  to  the  only  true  God  and 
to  Tesus  Christ  whom  He  hath  sent. 


*  SANCTIFICATION  IN  THE  TRUTH. 

(St.  John   17:  17-19.) 

by  rka'.   1).  av.  kaunok,  d.  d., 

rRoVIDENCE,    R.    I. 

The  committee  has  assigned  to  me  the  central  petition  in  Christ's  great 
High  Pfiestly  prayer,  as  recorded  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  John's 
Gospel  at  the  seventeenth  verse.  It  reads  as  follows:  "  Sanctify  them  in 
Thy  truth,  Thy  word  is  truth  ". 

Let  me  read,  that  you  may  have  the  connection,  the  verses  that  imme- 
diately precede  and  follow.  I  read  from  the  Revised  Version,  v.  14, 
"  I  have  given  them  Thy  word  " ;  v.  16,  "  They  are  not  of  the  world  even  as 
I  am  not  of  the  world";  v.  17,  the  verse  we  are  to  consider,  reads: 
"  Sanctify  them  in  Thy  truth ;  Thy  word  is  truth  ".  And  this  is  followed,  in 
V.  19,  by  the  words :  "  For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  Myself  that  they  also  may 
be  sanctified  in  truth  ". 

In  reading  these  tenderly  expressive  words,  I  have  not  heeded  the 
request  of  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  devout  Christians  I  have  ever 
known.  "  Pastor",  she  said,  "please  never  read  that  prayer  in  the  seven- 
teenth of  John  in  public  again  ".  The  pastor  supposed  there  had  been 
some  mistake  in  emphasis.  "Oh  no,  not  that",  was  the  quick  reply,  "but 
this:  that  prayer  of  love  and  agony  should  only  be  read  when  one  is  alone, 
on  his  knees  and  in  tears  ". 

We  sympathize  with  the  devout  feeling  so  earnestly  expressed.  But 
we  are  permitted,  also,  to  remember  that  .devotional  study  may  be  as 
devout  as  prayer  itself.  Our  Lord,  in  the  gift  of  the  promised  Holy  Spirit 
to  John,  caused  this  prayer  to  be  put  into  the  record.  We  may,  then,  be 
permitted  to  read  it,  to  study  it,  and  to  attempt  its  devotional  interpreta- 
tion. Devout  students  in  all  ages  have  felt  that  through  these  central 
words  in  this  central  part  of  this  great  prayer,  we  get  further  back  into  the 
depths  of  Christ's  own  soul  than  through  any  other  words  that  ever  fell 
from  those  holy  lips, — "  Sanctify  them  in  Thy  truth  ;  Thy  word  is  truth.  For 
their  sakes  I  sanctify  Myself". 

In  this  devotional  interpretation  notice,  first  of  all,  that  this  prayer  is 
the  one  true  "  Lord's  Prayer  ".  In  it  He  prays.  By  a  mistake  which  it  is  too 
late  in  the  centuries  to  correct,  we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  prayer  that 
begins  "  Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven  ",  "  The  Lord's  Prayer  ".  But 
that  prayer  should  have  been  called  "the  disciples'  prayer".  Our  Lord 
does  not  even  once  use  it  Himself.     He  the  rather  puts  it  into  the  mouth  of 


♦Delivered  at  the  Eighth  Conference,  held  at  All  Saints  Memorial  Church,  May  ii,  1904. 


3i8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

His  followers  who  had  said,  "  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  as  John  taught  his 
disciples  ".  That  prayer  is  now  known  to  be  a  compilation  in  part  from 
Jewish  prayers  of  that  time.  The  Jews  of  that  age,  following  their  Old  Testa- 
ment, called  God  "Father"  in  their  prayers.  Jesus  could  never  Himself 
have  employed  one  of  the  petitions  in  that  prayer, — "  Forgive  us  our  tres- 
passes ".  No  perfect  soul  can  truthfully  make  use  of  those  words.  On  the 
other  hand  this  prayer  —  this  sinless  prayer  of  the  seventeenth  of  John, 
which  should  have  been  called  "  The  Lord's  Prayer  ",  was  prayed  only  by 
Him.  It  is  so  holy  that  on  any  other  lips  than  His  it  would  be  profane. 
Even  He  could  pray  it  but  once.  In  it  His  heart  found  its  holy  vent. 
Though  in  one  part  of  it  He  prays  for  His  disciples.  He  does  not  notice  that 
they  are  present.  He  is  in  His  closet  alone  with  God.  They  two,  the 
Holy  Father  and  the  Holy  Son  are  speaking  with  each  other.  They  are  in 
the  very  act  of  communing.  Let  us  be  still.  The  time,  the  place,  the  per- 
sons are  sacred.     "  Let  all  the  earth  keep  silence  before  Him  ". 

Only  that  He  left  on  record  this  prayer  should  we  dare  speak  of  it. 
But  here  it  is ;  and  therefore  in  no  sense  acting  as  spies  on  our  Lord's 
communings  with  His  Father,  we  may,  with  hushed  heart,  venture  to  look 
and  listen. 

And  the  time  when  He  offers  this  prayer  is  especially  significant.  He 
has  so  nearly  completed  His  work  that  He  conceives  of  it  as  already  done. 
"  I  have  finished  ",  "  I  come  to  Thee  ",  He  says.  He  is  through  with 
Calvary  and  the  resurrection  and  ascension,  in  His  thought:  "I  come  to 
Thee  ".  Contrast  with  this  prayer  the  petition  popularly  called  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  as  to  the  time  of  their  respective  utterances.  In  the  prayer  He 
puts  into  the  lips  of  disciples  —  the  one  commencing  "  Our  Father",  He  is 
teaching  beginners  in  discipleship.  Had  that  prayer  been  given  further  on 
in  their  development,  would  He  have  omitted  from  it  the  very  things  for 
which  He  afterwards  told  them  to  pray,  viz.:  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
the  asking  of  all  in  His  name  ?  The  prayer  at  that  earlier  time  could  not 
have  had  the  fulness  of  the  New  Dispensation.  Let  me  not  be  misunder- 
stood. That  prayer,  that  "disciples'  prayer",  was  absolutely  perfect  for 
them  at  that  time ;  and  it  is  in  its  general  form  and  its  whole  spirit,  not 
so  much  a  stiff  mould  as  a  generous  and  blessed  model  of  prayer  for  all 
time.  But  what  a  contrast  between  that  "  disciples'  prayer "  and  this 
"Lord's  Prayer"  in  the  seventeenth  of  John.  It  is  not  in  John  "Our 
Father",  the  united  petition  of  disciples,  but  it  is  "Holy  Father",  the 
single  separate  term  of  sole  use  in  the  intimate  intercourse  between  God 
and  His  "  Only  Begotten  Son  "  as  that  Son  is  about  to  resume  the  native 
heaven  and  the  dateless  years  of  His  eternity  in  the  bosom  of  His  Father. 

Notice,  also,  the  order  of  the  petitions  in  this  prayer.  He  prays  first, 
(vs.  1-5)  about  Himself  that  God  will  glorify  Him.  He  prays  second,  (vs. 
6-19)  for  the  Twelve  exclusively.  He  prays  third,  (vs.  20-26)  for  all  future 
believers. 

Now  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  we  notice  that  the  seventeenth 
verse,  the  verse  which  we  are  studying,  comes  in  the  second  division,  viz.: 


SANCTIFICA  TION  IN  THE  TR  UTH.  3 1 9 

that  of  the  petition  for  the  Twelve,  lie  asks  two  things  for  His  Twelve  (a) 
negatively,  that  they  may  be  "  kept  from  the  evil  "  —  or  as  the  Revision  has 
it,  and  very  many  other  versions  —  that  they  may  be  "kept  from  the  Evil 
One".  Then  (b)  comes  the  positive  petition,  "  Sanctify  them  in  Thy  truth ; 
Thy  word  is  truth  ". 

"Sanctify  them";  the  word  "sanctify"  itself  means  to  separate  — 
simply  that.  The  root  idea  of  the  word,  taken  alone,  is  not  holiness  but 
separation  —  separation  not  from  what  is  impure  but  from  what  is  common. 
It  is  constantly  used  in  the  Old  Testament,  not  only  about  persons,  but 
about  things  no  longer  common,  because  set  apart  for  God's  peculiar 
service.  Twice  only  does  Jesus  use  the  word  about  Himself.  He  says 
(John  10:36)  that  He  "was  sanctified"  i.e.,  "  set  apart ",  and  "sent  into 
the  world  ".  In  this  prayer  (v.  20)  He  says  "  I  sanctify  Myself  ".  God  has 
"  sanctified  "  Him,  /.  <r.,  set  Him  apart;  and  now,  in  view  of  the  culminating 
cross  and  resurrection,  He  sets  Himself  apart,  dedicating  His  final  hours  to 
His  distinctively  redemptive  work.  And  here  and  now,  He  prays  that  the 
God  who  had  thus  sanctified,  /.  e.,  dedicated  Him  to  a  peculiar  mission, 
would  in  like  manner  sanctify,  dedicate,  consecrate  them  to  their  mission, 
in  furtherance  of  "  the  truth  ". 

And  now  with  this  idea  of  sanctification  as  a  dedication  and  a  conse- 
cration to  one's  work,  a  meaning  gained  from  Christ's  own  use  of  the 
"sanctify",  we  can  come  back  to  our  seventeenth  verse,  "Sanctify  them  in 
Thy  truth  ". 

He  has  the  Twelve  in  their  peculiar  needs  exclusively  in  mind.  See  the 
exact  position  of  these  men.  That  they  had  been  regenerated  before  He 
ever  met  them  seems  almost  certain  from  His  words  "  Thine  they  were  " — 
/.  e.,  they  were  Thine  before  they  were  Mine.  Then,  next,  they  became  His 
disciples,  by  believing  that  He  was  the  Messiah.  Next,  they  were  chosen 
to  become  His  apostles.  They  are  soon  to  enter  upon  that  apostolic  work, 
and  He  prays  for  them.  He  says  not  one  word  about  their  personal 
character ;  not  that  personal  character  was  unimportant.  But  He  has,  just 
now,  another  matter  in  view.  Never  such  a  mission  before  committed  to 
any  human  being.  And  unless  something  special  is  done  for  His  Twelve, 
His  Gospel  will  fall  stillborn,  and  the  world  will  never  know  anything 
accurately  about  Him.  He  might  almost  as  well  never  have  come.  Up  to  this 
time  they  had  constantly  blundered,  not  about  the  facts  —  there  they  were  the 
best  of  witnesses  about  matters  of  fact.  But  they  had  blundered  about 
the  meaning  of  the  facts.  They  had  lacked  any  comprehensive  grasp  of 
them.  They  had  no  idea  of  the  relation  of  part  to  part  and  of  each  part  to 
the  grand  whole  of  His  mission.  It  needed  something  vastly  more  than 
that,  that  they  should  be  perfected  in  personal  character.  They  saw  the 
things  and  heard  the  words  ;  but  He  had  to  tell  them,  not  in  any  impatience, 
but  in  profound  pity,  "  How  is  it  that  ye  do  not  understand  ?  "  Moreover, 
the  greatest  Gospel  facts  had  not  yet  occurred  —  facts  that  would  be  the 
key  to  all  the  others.  The  Lord's  death  and  resurrection,  clear  to  Christ's 
forseeing  eye,  were  hidden  from  the  Twelve  at  that  time.     And  Pentecost, 


320  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

which  would  bestow  upon  them  new  vision,  giving  them  the  lacking  grasp 
of  related  fact  and  correlated  doctrine,  had  not  come  to  them.  But  soon 
there  would  be  light  flashing  back  on  all  He  had  ever  done  and  said. 
Soon — very  soon  —  there  would  be  a  fulness  of  truth  into  which  they  would 
enter,  as  some  of  them  had  entered  into  that  radiant  Shekinah  cloud  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration.  And  this  is  His  prayer,  that  when  this  time  of 
revelation  comes,  they  may  enter  into  it ;  "  Sanctify  them  in  Thy  truth ;  Thy 
word  is  truth".  Notice  the  preposition  our  Lord  uses.  Scholarly  criti- 
cism, as  in  the  Revised  Version,  discards  the  word  "through"  not  so  much 
as  erroneous,  but  as  lacking  in  fulness,  and  unites  in  translating  "  in  Thy 
truth  "  instead  of  "  through  Thy  truth  ".  The  conception  is  not  only  more 
correct  but  more  significant.  It  is  "•in  the  truth"  as  a  man  stands  in  the 
atmosphere  that  surrounds  him  on  every  side,  and  breathes  in  the  vital  air ; 
"  in  the  truth"  as  a  man  comes  out  of  mist  and  even  out  of  darkness  and 
stands  in  the  sunshine  where  all  things  are  flooded  in  the  light  from  the 
heavens  above  him  ;  "  in  the  truth  "  as  a  man  emerges  from  the  loneliness  of 
a  solitary  existence  into  a  region  throbbing  with  a  new  and  intense  life ; 
"  /«  the  truth  "  as  in  a  shoreless  ocean  filled  with  the  God  whose  great 
name  is  the  God  of  truth,  and  whose  Only  Begotten  Son  can  say  "  I  am  the 
Truth  "—the  Truth  itself. 

And  notice  how  our  Lord  divides  men,  putting  their  moral  positions  in 
sharpest  contrast.  He  says  "  in  the  world  ",  and  over  against  it  He  puts 
"in  the  truth".  He  names  the  dominion  of  the  Evil  One  as  "in  the 
world",  and  puts  over  against  it  the  "in  Thy  Truth"  of  His  Holy 
Heavenly  Father.  Here,  as  in  all  His  teachings,  He  sees  two  antagonistic 
kingdoms,  with  their  respective  heads  and  members,  their  opposing 
principles  and  potencies,  their  utterly  unlike  aims  here  and  ends  here- 
after ;  and  His  conception  is  that  every  man  is  in  the  one  or  the  other. 
And  Jesus  prays  that  these  twelve  men,  while  they  must  remain  on  this 
material  earth  so  as  to  carry  out  His  purposes,  may  not  be  morally  and 
spiritually  in  the  element  which  He  calls  "  in  the  world  ",  but  may  be 
submerged  and  absorbed  in  that  opposite  element  which  He  calls  "the 
truth ".  You  will  notice  that  Jesus  uses  first  the  definite  article  "  the  " 
truth,  and  then  uses  the  personal  pronoun  "  Thy  ".  The  exact  order  of  the 
Greek  words  is  this:  "Sanctify  them  in  the  truth  of  Thine" — literally, 
"in  the  Thy  —  truth".  The  Greek  language  has  nothing  more  intense, 
distinctive,  definite.  The  conception  is  one  of  separateness  in  that  kind 
of  truth  which  is  itself  separated  from  every  other ;  that  truth  in  which  the 
mind  of  God  especially  works  in  the  redemptive  kingdom. 

And  this  point  gained  in  our  discussion,  we  may  ask  reverently  and  yet 
specifically,  just  what  was  comprehended  by  the  term  He  uses  in  this 
prayer  when  He  says  "  the  Truth  "  or  "  the  Thy— Truth  ",  /.  e.,  God's  truth. 
Plainly  what  He  means  here  by  "  Thy  Truth  "  is  expressed  by  the  phrase 
He  makes  exactly  equivolent,  "Thy  Word";  "Thy  Word  is  truth". 
Remember  our  Lord's  Jewish  birth  and  training.  Our  Old  Testament 
was  His  Bible.     He   knew  it,  as   none   had   ever   known   it  before.     Its 


SANCTIFICAl^ION  IN  THE  TRUTH.  321 

phrases  came  easily  to  His  lips,  He  modeled  His  forms  of  speech  on  those 
in  His  Bible.  He  found  in  its  earliest  pages  the  idea  of  a  God  revealed 
as  the  "I  am  God";  a  personal,  and  so  a  real  God,  over  against  the 
unreal  and  shadowy  gods  of  heathendom  ;  a  God,  who  because  He  was  a 
real  God,  was  God  over  the  whole  realm  of  truth,  and  so  was  the  very  God 
of  truth  itself;  and  therefore  the  personal  truth  Himself.  This  God  of 
truth  Jesus  found  in  His  Bible,  was  always  revealing  Himself,  manifesting 
Himself,  uttering  Himself  in  words  —  words  that  through  the  vocables  of 
human  language,  became,  whenever  God  used  them,  sanctified  words  as 
indicating  their  source  and  their  consecration.  Common  words  whenever 
used  elsewhere,  they  were  words  set  apart  to  a  purpose  when  God  em- 
ployed them.  They  were  words  of  God's  truth,  /.  e.,  God's  word.  Jesus 
found  in  His  Bible  constant  formulas  like  this,  "  the  Word  of  the  Lord  ", 
"  the  Word  of  God  ".  They  were  iterated  almost  to  weariness ;  so  that  where- 
ever  not  used  they  were  always  understood.  They  were  not  only  in  His 
Bible,  but  were  in  constant  use  among  all  the  people  He  knew,  as  their 
names  for  their  Bible.  On  occasion  He  quoted  to  them  certain  words  in 
their  Bible,  and  then  called  their  Bible,  as  they  themselves  did,  "  The 
Word  of  God  ",  saying  as  He  quoted  from  it, — "  The  Word  of  God  cannot  be 
broken  ".  Quoting  continually,  He  gives  His  Bible  as  final  authority.  He 
sharply  distinguishes  it  from  the  ordinary  Jewish  literature,  which  He  calls 
"  The  Tradition  of  the  Elders  ".  In  His  Bible  the  longest  Psalm,  cut  into 
portions  under  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  for  the  temple  service,  contained 
not  a  verse  in  which  this  usage  did  not  appear.  Jesus  born,  bred,  think- 
ing, teaching,  in  house  and  temple  and  by  the  wayside,  in  public,  in  pri- 
vate, was  familiar  with  such  terms.  And  can  any  honest  man  have  one 
lingering  doubt  but  that  however  much  more  He  meant  by  His  phrases 
"  Thy  truth  "  and  "  Thy  word  ",  He  meant  this  much  in  His  prayer,  that  the 
sanctification  of  His  Twelve  was  in  part  to  be  accomplished  in  connection 
with  the  Book  which  He  revered  as  "the  Truth"  —  the  Book  He  set 
men  to  studying  so  that  they  might  see  in  its  predictions  "the  things  con- 
cerning Himself  ".  He  said,  "Search  the  Scriptures"  —  the  Scriptures, 
in  distinction  from  that  vast  mass  of  Jewish  literature  current  in  His  time. 
Jesus  saw  in  His  Bible  what  the  prophets  themselves  did  not  always  see, 
the  scarlet  thread  interwoven  through  all  the  fabric ;  the  event  to  which 
every  event  recorded  on  its  pages  looked  forward.  And  from  the  day 
when  John  the  Baptist  said,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  ",  each  step  of  our  Lord's  life  was  a  step  towards  that 
lifted  cross  and  that  emptied  tomb.  God  had  put  the  prophecy  of  it  in  the 
written  Word.  Jesus  was  to  turn  prophecy  into  fulfilment  by  the  death  He 
should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem.  But  the  Twelve  did  not  yet  see  what  the 
death  and  "  the  rising  from  the  dead  should  mean  ".  And  so  He  prays 
that  they  may  have  the  sanctification  in  which  they  can  see  His  true 
mission  and  so  see  their  own.  And  then  came  Pentecost,  with  its  first 
instalment  of  the  answer.  Then  their  vision  was  purged  —  then  they  saw 
as  through  God's  eye,  as  through  Christ's  eye.     Then  their  Bible  was  alert, 


322  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

in  every  book  of  it,  with  their  newly  understood  Christ.  Then  the  isolated 
events  had  related  meaning  in  which  He,  and  they  with  Him,  were  sancti- 
fied to  a  peculiar  mission  among  men. 

Nor  was  the  understanding  of  these  events  the  all.  Accurate  record 
was  needed,  as  a  companion  document  for  their  Bible.  For  all  the  coming 
centuries  there  would  be  as  much  need  of  the  record  of  the  Christian  facts 
as  there  had  been  of  the  occurrence  of  the  facts  themselves.  Left  alone  to 
inexact  human  remembrance  of  them  and  to  an  unassisted  sorting  of  what 
to  record  and  what  to  omit ;  left  to  blunder  about  their  meaning  as  they 
had  done  during  His  lifetime,  their  inaccurate  narration  of  such  tremen- 
dous facts  would  be  worse  than  nothing.  We  can  make  mistakes  enough 
without  employmg  a  mistaken  guide.  Such  facts  as  these,  as  they  must 
have  more  than  human  warrant,  so  the  record  of  them  must  have  more 
than  human  superintendence.  It  is  plain  that  the  only  religion  that  can 
hold  its  place  in  the  later  centuries  must  he  one  that  founds  itself  on 
historic  facts  recorded  in  authentic  documents.  Such  documents  must  and 
will  show  something  of  the  personality  of  their  respective  authors.  God's 
inspiration,  securing  accuracy,  would  no  more  change  their  individual 
style  of  writing  than  change  the  features  of  their  individual  faces.  They 
would  still  be  men,  but  men  "  moved  of  God,  and  led  by  the  Holy  Spirit  into 
all  the  truth  "; — the  Greek  has  the  definite  article  "  the,"  /.  <?.,  "  all  the  truth  ". 
There  would  then  be  two  things :  First,  a  progressive  document ;  one  that 
goes  on  through  the  Old  Testament  into  the  New  Testament ;  and  then 
goes  on  through  the  New  Testament  as  these  men  should  give  to  the  long 
centuries  the  facts  and  doctrines  and  duties  that  make  up  the  Christian 
religion.  A  book  that  should  give  us  only  the  Zeitgeist  ox  "  age-spirit "  of  the 
era  when  written,  would  show  us  only  the  degree  of  moral  and  religious 
development  the  world  had  then  attained.  So  that,  second,  there  would  be 
need  of  a  book  which,  while  a  progressive  volume,  should  have  in  addition, 
that  divine  inspiration  and  revelation  which  would  ensure  its  absolute 
trustworthiness  ;  its  human  and  its  divine  guarantee  alike  given  to  the  world. 
Take  this  perfect  prayer  of  Jesus  in  the  seventeenth  of  John,  which  so 
needs  its  perfect  record.  One  sentence  omitted,  through  John's  lapse  of 
memory,  one  phrase  supplied  by  him,  and  the  whole  devout  world  would 
feel  the  difference.  The  prenticed  hand  may  spoil  perfection  of  the  statue 
as  surely  as  the  mailed  fist  of  the  iconoclast.  The  need  of  perfect  record 
may  be  more  conspicuous  in  this  perfectly  holy  prayer  of  our  Lord,  but  it 
is  not  less  real  elsewhere.  Do  you  wonder,  then,  that  Jesus  prays 
especially  for  men  with  such  a  unique  mission — "  Sanctify  them  in  Thy 
truth  ;  Thy  word  is  truth  "  ? 

Such  was  His  prayer.  And  now  what  was  the  answer?  It  was  this: 
Their  first  apostolic  work  was  their  personal  testimony  as  to  Christ's 
resurrection.  They  publicly  testified  that  they  themselves  had  seen  Him 
alive  after  His  death  on  the  cross ;  had  seen  the  healed  wounds,  had  eaten 
with  Him,  talked  with  Him  and  had  been  commissioned  by  Him,  after 
His    resurrection.     That   fact    established,  all  Christian   facts  would    be 


J 


SANCTIFICATION  IN  THE  TRUTH.  323 

comprised  in  it.  Resurrection  proved  previous  and  peculiar  death, 
previous  and  peculiar  life,  previous  and  peculiar  birth,  previous  and  pecu- 
liar existence  in  a  dateless  eternity.  There  was  to  be  a  granite  basis  of 
veritable  fact  for  Christianity.  And  this  was  it.  Paul,  in  order  to  become 
an  apostle  and  so  be  able  to  bear  this  witness  with  the  others,  had  to  see, 
on  the  way  to  Damascus,  the  Christ  risen  after  His  death,  and  to  get  from 
His  lips  the  apostolic  commission.  First  of  all  these  men  preached  an 
oral  Gospei.  It  was  about  "  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  ".  But,  by  and  by, 
when  chosen  men  came  to  write  out  the  facts,  doctrines  and  duties  they 
had  preached,  their  writings  took  two  forms;  the  factual  or  narrative  form, 
and  the  doctrinal  form.  Paul,  whose  four  great  Epistles  were  written 
before  any  one  of  our  four  Gospels,  took  the  great  facts,  and  looking  back 
upon  them  through  the  lens  of  Christ's  resurrection  —  remember  He  saw 
the  risen  Christ —  conceived  of  them  in  their  grandly  comprehensive 
meaning  in  these  Epistles  which  are  the  most  primitive  of  our  Christian 
documents.  So  that  to  get  "back  to  Christ  "  —  nearest  to  Him  through 
the  earliest  of  the  Christian  documents— we  must  go  back  through  Paul. 
Subsequently  the  four  evangelists,  giving  us  the  great  facts  also,  fill  in 
with  their  delightful  detail  the  sacred  story  of  their  ever  blessed  Lord. 
Those  who  wrote  were  supported  by  the  consenting  testimony  of  the 
other  apostles ;  and  so  there  was  given  to  men,  the  world  around  and  the 
ages  through,  the  imperishable  record  of  Christian  fact,  of  Christian  doc- 
trine and  duty  found  in  this  New  Testament.  And  so  Christ's  prayer  for 
them  was  answered  and  they  were  "  sanctified  in  the  truth  "  as  they  entered 
into  the  new  domain,  breathed  in  the  new  atmosphere  and  felt  the  new 
vitality  of  this  Gospel. 

Some  interpretative  inferences  may  be  briefly  named : 
I.  Sanctification,  whether  for  an  ancient  apostle  or  for  a  modern 
believer,  is  through  a  knowledge  of  the  "Word  of  God".  Contrasting  the 
transient  and  imperfect  Mosaic  Dispensation  with  the  perfect  and  per- 
petual Christian  Dispensation,  an  inspired  man  has  said,  "  By  one  offering 
Christ  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanctified".  We  must  know 
our  Bibles ;  since  the  degree  of  sanctification  must  bear  a  relation  to  our 
knowledge  of  God's  Word.  This  peculiar  Book  must  have  its  peculiar 
study.  Some  of  us  can  remember  that  when  in  the  district  schools,  Mil- 
ton's "  Paradise  Lost "  was  used  in  "  parsing  ",  so  called  ;  the  old  fashioned 
grammatical  exercise.  But  did  any  one  ever  come  in  that  way  to  know 
Milton's  sublime  Epic?  To  study  the  Bible  merely  as  "literature",  as  an 
exercise  in  "historic  knowledge"  or  in  "  pedagogic  method  ",  is  even  less 
likely  to  give  one  an  understanding  of  the  Sacred  Volume  and  to  sanctify 
the  man  who  does  it.  "  Literary  study  "  alone,  or  "  historic  study  "  alone, 
in  college,  in  seminary,  in  Sunday-school,  or  even  in  the  closet,  is  liable  to 
result  in  misapprehension.  You  may  not,  must  not  study  it  as  you  study 
any  other  book.  Unique,  let  it  have  its  unique  method.  Christ  is  the  focal 
point  to  which  every  thing  must  be  seen  as  converging,  if  you  would  know 
your  Bible.     "To  Him  give  all  the  prophets"  —  and  every  historian  was 


324  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

also  a  prophet — "  witness  ".  All  gathers  in  Hire.  Among  the  mountains 
in  summer  I  meet  men  who  are  making  sketches.  They  transfer  to  one 
canvas  a  rock,  to  another  a  tree,  to  a  third  that  mountain  and  that  cloud. 
By  and  by  these  bits  of  loveliness  are  all  to  be  assembled  into  one  completed 
picture.  So  each  separate  virtue  shown  by  any  man  mentioned  with  ap- 
plause in  this  volume,  is  gathered  up,  made  perfect  and  exemplified  in  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  the  same  with  all  events  in  Biblical  history.  Seen  with  anointed 
eye,  they  are  to  be  studied  in  their  inexhaustible  connection  with  this  inex- 
haustible Christ.  We  are  to  be  "  sanctified  in  the  truth".  "  Thy  Word  ", 
said  Jesus,  looking  up  into  the  consenting  eyes  of  His  Father  —  "Thy 
Word  is  truth  ". 

II.  Sanctification  is  also  the  experience,  in  the  depths  of  the  human 
soul,  of  God's  truth.  The  only  subjective  Christian  experience  that  has 
any  value  is  that  wrought  by  the  objective  Christian  facts  made  potent  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Hence  we  distrust  all  visions,  dreams,  impressions,  im- 
pulses to  do  strange,  unauthorized  things.  All  is  to  be  tested  by  the  Word. 
And  because  you  have  not  as  yet  come  up  and  on  and  into  the  experience 
of  a  clearly  narrated  truth,  do  not  discard  it.  To  do  that  would  be  to  make 
your  own  Bible  rather  than  to  take  God's  Bible.  The  man  who  puts  his 
intellectual  understanding,  his  moral  intuition  or  even  his  alleged  Chris- 
tian experience  as  the  sole  test,  is  a  man  who  allows  God  to  teach  him 
nothing.  Nor  hesitate,  because,  like  all  other  truth,  God's  revealed  truth 
has  its  mysteries. 

A  scout,  when  an  exploring  party  was  seeking  the  Pacific,  mounting 
a  hill,  cried  out,  "I  see  it".  "See  what?"  shouted  the  leader.  "The 
Pacific",  was  the  answer.  "How  wide  is  it?"  "About  ten  miles", 
answered  the  scout.  "Ah!"  replied  the  leader,  "if  it  were  the  Pacific 
you  could  not  see  across  it ".  Let  us  learn  that  truth  is  always  wider  than 
our  present  experience  of  it.  Truth,  distrusted  in  the  impatience  of  youth, 
gets  itself  believed  in  the  stress  of  middle  life,  and  fully  trusted,  as  the 
very  sheet  anchor  of  hope,  in  the  experiences  of  age.  Much  of  God's 
Word  awaits  our  better  understanding  of  it  in  the  experiences  of  eternity 
when  we  shall  study  it  in  the  light  of  the  countenance  of  God  Himself. 

A  few  parenthetic  words  just  here,  may  not  be  out  of  place  about 
things  outside  "  the  Word  ",  which  are  sometimes  thought  to  have  sanctify- 
ing power. 

In  the  presence  of  Niagara,  there  is  awe ;  but  the  man  who  experi- 
ences it  may  be  an  infidel.  In  the  presence  of  Munkacsy's  "  Christ 
Before  Pilate  ",  sympathetic  emotion  may  be  stirred  in  any  unregenerate 
man.  A  song  on  "  Calvary  "  drew  tears  from  the  one  who  had  wept  as 
freely  at  the  theater  over  the  play,  the  same  evening.  Touched  by  the 
tones  of  a  soprano  in  a  church  choir  a  man  swore  that  the  solo  was  finely 
rendered.  Esthetic  feeling  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  Christian  ex- 
perience. But  when,  first  of  all,  the  soul  in  its  deepest  depths  has  been 
really  regenerated  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  He  applies  to  it  the  great  Chris- 
tian truths,  then  esthetic  feeling,  like  every  other  natural  impulse,  receives 


SANCTIFICATION  IN  THE  TRUTH.  325 

its  sanctification  through  the  vital  experience  of  God's  truth.  Mountain 
and  plain,  river  and  sea,  God's  sunrise  and  His  sunset,  man's  picture  and 
song  are  seen  by  the  vital  eye,  looking  through  the  new  moral  atmosphere 
of  God's  revealed  Word  ;  are  seen  as  "  sanctified  "  objects,  and  so  are  made 
subservient  to  the  soul's  sanctification.  Last  night  at  midnight  a  sharp  eye 
could  dimly  discern  a  few  things  close  at  hand.  This  morning  the  sun  rose, 
and  the  wide  prospect  from  horizon  to  horizon  was  visible.  Any  single 
acre  of  it  was  worth  more  than  the  whole  round  world  perpetually  sunless. 
Well  might  Bushnell  exclaim,  "  This  is  another  world  since  Christ  came 
into  it  ".     Jesus  said,  "  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  ". 

But  there  is  a  further  sanctification,  in  which  all  knowledge  in  the 
realm  of  divine  truth  and  </// profound  experience  of  it  in  the  human  soul, 
leads  a  man  on  to  the  sanctified  doing  of  God's  will.  Jesus  calls  His  fol- 
lower "  the  man  that  doeth  the  truth ".  Sanctification  is  not  only  of  the 
head  and  the  heart,  but  of  the  life.  Only  let  us  remember  that  the  life  is 
vastly  more  than  the  outward  conduct.  Life  is  that  interior  principle,  the 
motions  of  which  rule  the  exterior  act.  With  this  prayer  of  Jesus  before 
us,  let  us  seek  to  "practice  the  presence  of  God"  in  the  deepest  activities 
of  the  soul  when  we  are  alone  with  Him,  when  He  opens  His  heart  to  us 
and  we  open  our  hearts  to  Him ;  when  we  tell  all  our  souls  out  to  Him  as 
never  to  nearest  earthly  friend,  and  He  gives  such  communication  of 
understanding  in  His  revealed  Word  that  we  appreciate  holy  Rutherford's 
phrase  when  he  speaks  of  "  revelling  in  the  truth  ".  Such  inward  spiritual 
activity  will  save  us  from  any  superficiality  in  our  religious  life.  Such 
"  practice  of  God  "  in  the  depths  of  the  soul  will  make  us  grow,  not  as  the 
dead  stone  by  accretion  of  particles  to  its  surface,  but  as  the  plant  grows, 
by  absorbing  into  its  inward  life  that  on  which  it  can  thrive.  We  shall  crave 
seasons  of  prayer  and  of  meditation,  in  which  the  closed  door  of  the  closet 
will  shut  out  the  world  and  shut  us  in  with  God.  Then  there  will  be  given 
at  one  time  the  experience  of  "the  green  pastures  and  the  still  waters"  of 
God's  own  peace ;  at  another  time,  the  experience  of  "  the  unspeakable 
joy  "  ;  at  still  another  time,  the  consciousness  of  a  strength  not  our  own  to 
to  do  or  to  suffer ;  and  yet,  again,  some  verse  of  God's  Word  will  be  for  us  a 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  and  heaven  will  seem  to  be  opened.  And  it  will 
be  opened  for  us  soon,  not  only  in  sanctified  feeling  but  realized  fact.  One 
after  the  other  we  go  into  that  world  of  eternal  truth,  to  practice  our- 
selves in  those  larger  revelations  that  there  await  our  coming.  And  what 
if  our  Lord,  on  the  departure  of  each  believer  from  the  earthly  service, 
looking  up  once  more  into  the  face  of  His  Father,  utters  anew  the  final 
words  of  this  wonderful  prayer,  now  making  it  specific  and  personal,  as  He 
says, —  "  Father,  I  will  that  [this  man]  whom  Thou  gavest  Me  be  with  Me 
where  I  am  that  [he]  may  behold  My  glory  ". 


*  THE  SELF-SURRENDER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

(  St.  John  i8:  ii.) 
by  rev.  gs^eo.  m!.  stone,  d.  x).. 

Pastor  of  the  Asylum  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  Hartford,  Conn. 

In  the  crisis  of  his  Eden  trial  the  first  Adam  surrendered  to  self,  in  the 
interest  of  pleasure.  In  the  trial  of  the  second  Adam  He  surrendered  to 
God,  when  the  certain  issue  was  suffering.  Eden  and  Gethsemane  are  for- 
ever set  over  against  each  other  in  the  spiritual  history  of  man.  One  act 
drove  the  man  forth  to  look  backward  upon  a  gate  policed  by  the  cherubim, 
the  other  "opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believers".  The  Self- 
Surrender  of  Jesus  Christ  is  inseparably  connected  with  three  truths,  The 
Will  of  God,  The  Problem  of  Suffering,  and  The  Salvation  of  Man. 

I.  The  immediate  background  of  our  Lord's  question, — "  The  cup 
which  My  Father  hath  given  Me,  shall  I  not  drink  it.-"'  was  the  Father's  ex- 
press will.  "  My  Father  presents  it.  It  is  not  My  natural  human  preference  ". 
This  gives  us  a  humanity  in  Christ  so  genuine  and  essential  as  to  be 
beyond  impeachment.  Paul  holds  fast  by  this  when  he  says,  in  his  great 
legal  argument  to  the  Romans, — "  For  as  by  one  man's  disobedience  many 
were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one  shall  many  be  made  right- 
eous ".  Besides,  the  whole  hinge  of  Christ's  self-surrender  turns  upon  His 
being  truly  man.  The  only  and  sole  element  in  this  cup,  which  made  Him 
willing  to  drink  it,  was  the  will  of  God.  The  cup  was  bitter  of  itself,  beyond 
any  ever  before  presented  to  man.     The  angels  yet  desire  to  look  into  it. 

Notwithstanding,  it  was  mixed  by  the  Father's  hand,  its  contents  have 
never  been  brought  under  human  analysis  in  the  full  depth  and  range  of 
their  severity.  Hence  the  difficulty  in  formulating  a  satisfactory  statement 
of  the  Atonement.     The  Nicene  Council,  led  by 

"  The  royal  hearted  Athanase, 
With  Paul's  own  mantle  blest ", 

was  able  to  fix  in  the  enduring  form  of  sound  words  the  truth  concerning 
the  person  of  Christ.  But  when  our  Substitute  was  passing  towards  the 
shadow  of  His  Cross,  He  said  to  His  disciples,  "Whither  I  go  ye  cannot 
come  ".  As  there  were  bounds  set  about  the  fiery  mount  of  the  law,  lest 
any  should  break  through  to  gaze,  so  about  the  sacred  precincts  of  the 
suffering  and  death  of  Christ,  there  were  fixed  bounds,  which  the  human 
mind  has  not  passed.  There  were  unexplored  remainders,  and  unrevealed 
abysses,  in  the  chalice  of  the  Garden  and  the  Cross.     The  transaction  was 


*  Delivered  at  the  Seventh  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Congregational  Church,  April  13,  1904. 

326 


THE  SELF-SURRENDER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  327 

cosmic  in  its  reach,  since  "  He  tasted  death  for  every  man  ".  It  was  no 
less  sufficient  to  obliterate  time  periods,  for  "  this  Man,  after  He  had  offered 
one  sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  (iod  ;  from 
henceforth  expecting  till  His  enemies  be  made  His  footstool.  For  by  one 
offering  He  hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sanctified  ".  An  earthly 
king  can  do,  only  the  Prince  of  Peace  can  undo,  and  thus  turn  back  the 
retributive  sanctions  of  human  sin.  In  the  mid-sea  of  His  agony  on  the 
cross,  when  the  air  was  thick  with  portents,  charged  with  the  penalties  of 
the  world's  sin  massed  into  one  awful  cloud,  He  cried  out,  "  My  God,  My 
God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me  ?  "  For  once  He  dropped  the  Father's 
name  and  in  those  preternatural  hours  fell  back  upon  the  naked  justice  of 
a  holy  God.     Let  Mrs.  Browning  speak  of  the  impossibility  even  there  of 

His  desertion : 

"  Deserted  I    God  could  separate 
From  His  own  essence  rather, 
And  Adam's  sins  have  swept  between 

The  righteous  Son  and  F"ather  ; 
Yea,  once  Immanuel's  orphaned  cry, 

His  universe  hath  shaken. 
It  went  up  single,  echoless, 
My  God,  I  am  forsaken  ". 

The  voluntary  element  in  the  self-giving  of  Christ  muit  not  be  over- 
looked in  any  just  estimate  of  it.  The  objection  to  the  idea  of  one  man 
suffering  in  the  place  of  another  has  overlooked  the  fact  of  personal  will 
and  deliberate  choice  in  the  matter.  Even  yet,  it  is  difficult  for  men  to  see 
that  our  Master  was  not  compelled  to  suffer  by  the  decision  of  the  Jewish 
Sanhedrin  or  the  sanctioning  injustice  of  the  Roman  governor.  One  of 
the  most  notable  of  His  sayings,  in  view  of  the  cross,  was  His  word  to  His 
own  zealous  disciple,  Peter:  "Put  up  again  thy  sword  into  his  place;  for 
all  they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword.  Thinkest  thou 
that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  My  Father,  and  He  shall  presently  give  Me 
more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels  ?  But  how  then  shall  the  Scriptures  be 
fulfilled,  that  thus  it  must  be  ?  " 

In  effect  He  informs  Peter  how  paltry  his  defence  must  be,  when  the 
serried  columns  of  the  celestial  host  were  waiting  to  move  upon  His  foes  at 
the  slightest  signal  from  Himself.  Earlier  than  this,  Jesus  uttered  the 
classical  declaration  upon  this  fact  of  voluntariness  in  His  suffering: 
"  Therefore  doth  My  Father  love  Me,  because  I  lay  down  My  life,  that  I 
might  take  it  again.  No  man  taketh  it  from  Me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of 
Myself.  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again. 
This  commandment  have  I  received  of  My  Father". 

II.  Not  otherwise  than  by  voluntary  suffering  could  our  Lord  fill  up 
the  outline  of  prophecy.  The  animal  sacrifices  of  the  Jewish  system  failed 
in  this  voluntary  element.  For  1,500  years  "  dumb  driven  cattle  "  were  led 
unwillingly  to  the  altar  and  slain.  And  yet  the  offerer  laid  his  hands  upon 
the  victim  before  its  life  was  yielded  up,  thereby  indicating  that  guilt  was 
transferred  to  it,  as  in  a  picture.     PJut  these  repeated  offerings  were  only 


328  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

symbols  used  for  a  term  to  foreshow  One  who  should  take  our  burdens  and 
do  so  of  His  own  free  and  self-chosen  will.  How  clearly  is  this  stated  in 
the  great  historic  comparison  made  by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.  "  For  it  is  not  possible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats 
should  take  away  sins.  Wherefore,  when  He  cometh  into  the  world,  He 
saith,  sacrifice  and  offering  Thou  wouldst  not,  but  a  body  hast  Thou  pre- 
pared Me  :  In  burnt-offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sin  Thou  hast  had  no  pleas- 
ure. Then  said  I,  Lo,  I  come  (in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  Me) 
to  do  Thy  will,  O  God". 

Frequently  the  law  did  not  look  beyond  the  shadow  to  the  Coming 
Person  of  the  Messiah.  But  when  He  appeared,  men  of  insight,  like  the 
Forerunner,  immediately  saw  it.  Most  clearly  of  all,  our  Divine  Master 
recognized  this  suffering  and  dying  for  others,  as  an  essential  part  of  His 
mission.  It  was  very  difficult  for  the  disciples  —  especially  in  view  of 
Christ's  manifested  power  —  to  understand  this.  They  could  not  see  how, 
with  such  reserve  of  power  at  command.  He  could  submit  to  His  enemies. 

The  same  principle  of  help  and  suffering  for  another's  sake  is  found 
embedded  in  nature,  in  society  and  in  individual  human  life.  Throughout 
the  whole  sphere  of  the  natural  world  one  thing  seems  to  exist  for  another. 
The  forces  of  nature  join  hands  for  mutual  help.  It  is  Ruskin,  who  says, 
"  It  is  the  working,  and  walking  and  clinging  together,  that  gives  their 
power  to  the  winds,  and  its  syllables  and  soundings  to  the  air,  and  their 
weight  to  the  waves,  and  their  burning  to  the  sunbeams  ". 

Society  is  knit  together  by  bonds  of  helpful  union.  The  exchanges  of 
commerce  are  the  contribution  of  one  part  of  the  world  to  make  up  the 
deficiencies  of  another.  What  is  the  whole  system  of  insurance,  fire  and  life, 
but  a  plan  to  enable  those  who  are  fortunate  to  aid  those  who  may  be  less  so .-' 
The  flame-swept  city  of  Baltimore  is  now  receiving  millons  of  money  from 
outside  insurance  companies  to  rebuild  its  desolate  sites,  because  this  prin- 
ciple has  been  organized  into  avast  business  system.  Even  the  professions 
are  built  in  good  measure  upon  the  same  basis.  The  physician  studies  the 
human  body  in  my  behalf —  I  have  not  time  or  opportunity. 

And  how  in  the  whole  range  of  common  life,  in  the  family  and  with 
individuals,  we  are  living  and  dying  one  for  another!  Mothers  yield  up 
their  lives  for  their  children.  How  willingly  are  such  sufferings  endured ! 
"  Many  waters  cannot  quench  love  ",  and  many  barriers  cannot  interrupt  its 
mission. 

The  noblest  part  of  natural  history  is  connected  with  the  fact  of  a 
bitter  cup.  The  flag  we  honor  has  been  baptized  in  blood  in  manifold 
wars  and  revolutions.  It  is  like  a  palimpsest  upon  which  one  period  of 
sacrifice  has  been  written  over  another,  until  it  bears  successive  legends  of 
sacrifice. 

III.  The  rank  of  Christ  in  this  procession  of  those  who  love  and 
suffer  for  others'  sake  is  the  highest.  As  "  the  Bloody  Angle  "  on  Ceme- 
tery Hill,  at  Gettysburg,  was  the  high-water  mark  of  the  civil  war,  so  His 


THE  SELF-SURRENDER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  329 

cross  was  the  highest  stage  ever  reached  by  sacrifice,  of  one  persen  for 
another's  good.  If  we  consider  the  dignity  of  the  sufferer  as  the  Son  of 
God,  and  the  depth  of  His  sorrow  as  our  surety,  Calvary  is  the  central 
spot  in  this  world  of  sin  and  suffering.  Even  the  dying  thief  discovered 
the  innocence  of  Christ  and  said  to  his  companion,  "  We  sufTer  justly,  but 
this  Man  hath  .done  nothing  amiss".  The  cross  cannot  be  explained  as 
something  endured  by  our  Lord  on  His  own  behalf.  This  deed  of  expi- 
ation was  for  us.  If  we  raise  the  question,  why  could  not  God  forgive 
without  it  ?  We  reply,  something  was  due  to  law  broken,  and  society 
injured.  Even  the  civil  state  does  not  forgive  upon  repentence  simply. 
It  requires  an  expiation,  a  time  of  liberty  restricted,  and  service  rendered 
for  the  damages  inflicted  upon  the  social  order  broken.  The  expiation  of 
Christ  was  witnessed  by  other  than  human  eyes.  The  company  grouped 
around  the  cross  constituted  only  a  small  part  of  "  the  great  cloud  of 
witnesses  ". 

For  tliis  event  was  to  reach  depths  in  the  heart  of  God  which  no  one 
of  the  heavenly  host  had  known,  and  hence,  "  peace  through  the  blood  of 
His  cross,  reconciles  all  things  unto  Himself,  whether  they  be  things  in 
earth,  or  things  in  heaven  ",  Now  we  behold  the  Father  moved  by  the  sin 
and  sorrow,  the  distress  and  anguish  of  men  to  such  a  degree  as  to  take  it 
upon  Himself  as  His  own  suffering  burden.  For  it  is  His  burden.  The 
Son  of  God  was  a  personal  volunteer,  dying  at  the  same  time  for  man's  sin 
and  God's  holiness. 

"  The  Saviour,  what  a  noble  flame 
Was  kindled  in  His  breast, 
When,  hasting  to  Jerusalem, 
He  marched  before  the  rest ! 

"  Good-will  to  men,  and  zeal  for  God, 
His  every  thought  engross  ; 
He  longs  to  be  baptized  with  blood, 
He  pants  to  reach  the  cross. 

•  "  With  all  His  sufferings  full  in  view, 

And  woes  to  us  unknown, 
Forth  to  the  task  His  spirit  flew; 
'T  was  love  that  urged  Him  on  ". 

The  question  of  the  Father's  implication  in  the  sufferings  of  the  Son 
cannot  be  dismissed  at  this  point.  A  great  scholar  has  said  of  the  mystery 
of  the  Trinity,  that  our  lips  can  only  stammer  when  we  attempt  to  define  it. 
And  the  question  of  the  Father's  sufferings  is  one  about  which  we  may 
humbly  employ  the  Psalmist's  words :  "  Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful 
for  us;  it  is  high,  we  cannot  attain  unto  it".  Still  it  remains  true  for  us 
that  He  who  suffered,  said,  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me,  hath  seen  the  Father". 
If  it  be  so  that  the  mystery  of  suffering  reaches  up  to  the  highest  form  of 
being  in  the  universe,  and  inflicts  its  profoundest  pains  in  the  heart  of  the 
Eternal  Father,  we  may  discover  here  the  most  effective  motive  and  lever- 
age to  induce  the  sinner  to  repent. 


330  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

A  late  writer  furnishes  me  with  this  incident : 

"  In  a  boys'  school  in  Boston  a  form  of  discipline  was  once  introduced 
which  might  be  called  a  judgment  infliction  of  unique  character.  For  a 
certain  transgression,  the  master  himself,  instead  of  the  pupil,  was  to  receive 
the  punishment.  The  first  time  it  was  applied  the  guilty  scholar  broke 
down,  and  the  school  broke  down.  In  prmciple,  this  gracious  judgment- 
infliction  was  akin  to  that  which  under  grace  is  applied  in  the  Atonement ; 
and  for  a  saving  mastery  over  human  nature,  the  principle  is  unequalled". 

The  contention  of  Professor  A.  R.  Wallace  in  his  bold  speculation  enti- 
tled "  Man's  Place  in  the  Universe  ",  has  been  in  brief  terms  summarized  by 
a  personal  friend.  This  is  its  contention:  "That  our  earth  lies  near  the 
center  of  the  Milky  Way  ;  that  it  is  the  only  inhabited  or  habitable  spot  in 
the  physical  universe ;  that  man  is  the  consummation  of  the  whole  cosmic 
process ;  that  the  whole  ordered  creation  comes  to  its  crown  on  this  planet 
and  in  the  human  species.  I  say  it  may  be  a  mere  speculation,  though  he 
is  one  of  the  foremost  scientists  of  the  world  who  has  indulged  in  it. 
Whether  it  be  a  speculation  or  not  to  say  that  the  earth  is  the  focus  of  the 
cosmic  movement,  it  is  not  speculation  to  say  that  the  focus  of  the  historic 
human  movement  is  the  Incarnation  of  the  eternal  Son  of  God  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The  learned  man,  therefore,  is  the  man  who 
recognizes  Christ,  not  only  as  'the  subliraest  image  ever  offered  to  the 
human  imagination  ',  but  as  the  heart  of  the  heart  of  the  universe,  without 
Whom,  and  apart  from  Whom,  knowledge  is  empty  of  life,  a  formula  vacant 
of  power,  a  shell  without  a  kernel ;  in  Whom  the  physical  creation  finds  its 
bond  —  for  in  Him  all  things  hold  together  —  and  in  Whom  the  world  of 
human  knowledge  finds  its  glory  and  its  crown  ". 

There  is  a  majestic  sweep  of  vision  in  the  conception,  which  is  not  an 
unworthy  echo  of  the  highest  attitudes  of  inspired  thought  in  Paul,  and 
which  suggests  a  possible  outcome  of  the  bitterness  of  Christ's  cup,  quite 
as  inclusive  as  anything  in  the  present  Epistles  of  the  great  Apostle. 

IV.  Our  last  general  consideration  leads  up  to  the  relation  between 
Christ's  self- surrender,  and  our  recovery  from  sin.  Self-surrender  'is  the 
crucial  point  for  the  sinner.  Here,  indeed,  the  King  sets  the  fashion  of  the 
court.  When  a  few  years  since  a  distinguished  theological  teacher  affirmed 
that  the  supreme  business  of  the  preacher  was  to  induce  men  to  obey  Christ, 
considerable  adverse  criticism  was  aroused.  But  there  is  no  gospel  in  Old 
or  New  Testament  for  the  disobedient  man.  The  heaviest  burden  of  a  soul 
confirmed  in  sin  is  God  Himself,  and  so  the  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart, 
"  There  is  no  God  ".  He  refuses  to  agree  with  his  adversary,  either  quickly 
or  slowly,  but  he  is  unable  to  dislodge  Him,  and  hence  his  misery.  I  have 
heard  of  a  new  convert  to  atheism,  who  said  to  a  coterie  of  fellow  unbe- 
lievers, "  I  have  gotten  rid  of  the  idea  of  a  Supreme  Being,  and  I  thank 
God  for  it".  The  God  driven  out  at  the  front  door  re-enters  at  the  back 
one,  for  the  intellect  of  man  is  in  revolt  against  the  ungodly  heart,  and  will 
assert  its  rights  under  the  eternal  franchises  of  reason. 

It  is  Browning  who  says  :     "  I  report  as  a  man  may  of  God's  work — 


THE  SELF-SURRENDER  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  331 

all's  Love,  Yet  all's  law  "  !  Herein  the  disciple  is  not  above  his  Lord,  or 
the  servant  above  his  Master.  But  if  the  cup  with  its  bitter  ingredients  is 
presented  to  us  by  our  Father,  as  that  of  our  Saviour  was  presented  to  Him 
by  His  Father,  we  may  avail  ourselves  also  of  His  sufficient  consolation. 
In  His  memorable  prayer  before  the  Garden  and  the  Cross,  He  bridges 
over  both,  as  His  holy  soul  rests  upon  the  consummation  of  both,  in  the 
measureless  joy  which  was  to  succeed  "  the  sharpness  of  death  ".  The  cup 
was  not  an  end  for  Him,  great  as  it  was,  and  it  behooves  us  to  relegate  it 
habitually  to  its  place.  The  greatest  of  modern  essayists  has  said,  "  The 
pencil  of  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  labored  more  in  describing  the  afflictions  of 
Job  than  the  felicities  of  Solomon  ".  But  the  felicities  of  Solomon  were 
not  to  be  reckoned  with  the  glory  visioned  by  Paul.  In  the  light  of  the 
latter,  we  may  even  challenge  Longfellow's  couplet, 

"  Not  enjoyment,  and  not  sorrow, 
Is  our  destined  end  or  way  ", 

for  our  gospel  carries  the  golden  bribe  of  righteous,  enduring  joy.  Not  the 
wilderness,  but  Canaan,  was  the  end  for  Israel.  The  first  question  and  its 
answer,  in  the  old  Catechism,  is  the  summary  of  the  best  theology  :  "  What 
is  the  chief  end  of  man  ?     To  glorify  God  and  enjoy  Him  forever  ". 

Beautiful  words  are  those  of  Lanier,  in  his  Ballad  of  Trees  and  the 
Master  : 

"  Into  the  woods  my  Master  went, 
Clean  forspent,  forspent. 
Into  the  woods  my  Master  came, 
Forspent  with  love  and  shame. 
But  the  olives  they  were  not  blind  to  Him  ; 
The  little  gray  leaves  were  kind  to  Him  ; 
The  thorn  tree  had  a  mind  to  Him, 
When  into  the  woods  He  came. 

"  Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  went, 
And  He  was  well  content. 
Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  came, 
Content  with  death  and  shame. 
When  Death  and  Shame  would  woo  Him  lasi. 
From  under  the  trees  they  drew  Him  last , 
'Twas  on  the  tree  they  slew  Him— last 
When  out  of  the  woods  He  came. 


*THE  CRUCIFIXION— "IT  IS  FINISHED". 

BY    RT.    REV.    THOlVtAS    A..    JAGGAR.,    D.    D., 

Bishop  of  Southern  Ohio. 

(St.  John  19  :  30.) 

When  Jesus  therefore  had  received  the  vinegar   He  said,  "  It  is  finished  ".    And 
He  bowed  His  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost. 

I  have  approached  with  awe  the  study  of  this,  the  most  pregnant  word 
in  all  history.  How  should  I  presume  to  look  into  the  depths  of  the 
consciousness  which,  with  almost  its  last  breath  in  time,  sounded  the  trumpet- 
note— yf«/j/^<?</.''  To  speculate  has  seemed  to  me  presumption.  I  have  not 
dared  to  adopt  the  method  of  critical  exegetes,  who  seem  to  jostle  one 
another  with  fierce  disputings  around  the  cross.  Many  of  them  interpret 
it  by  the  glory  which  followed — the  Resurrection,  Ascension  and  coming 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

I  have  chosen  to  "  learn  of  Him  "  and  by  all  that  He  has  revealed  of 
His  consciousness,  to  travel  up  from  the  human  side  to  all  that  we  may 
know  of  this  last  word.  I  would  find  in  the  Christ  His  own  interpreter  and 
put  no  more  into  the  word  than  He  permits  me  to  see  there. 

We  are  to  ask,  then,  what  this  word  must  have  meant  in  His  conscious- 
ness, when,  with  a  loud  voice,  "  He  bowed  His  head  and  gave  up  the 
ghost ". 

The  words  I  shall  use  will  be  largely  the  words  recorded  of  Him  or 
spoken  by  Him. 

The  words  which  tell  us  all  that  we  know  of  His  childhood  and  youth 
are  like  the  lines  of  some  fine  etching — few  but  strong  and  full  of  meaning. 
"  The  Child  grew  and  waxed  strong,  filled  with  wisdom  and  the  grace  of 
God  was  upon  Him  ".  There  was  a  genius  for  divine  things  and  a  divine 
inspiration  which  kept  it  alive,  and^made  it  more  and  more  appreciative  as 
His  years  increased.  His  quiet  home  at  Nazareth  afforded  no  great  oppor- 
tunities for  religious  instruction.  But  nature  was  beautiful,  and  the  train- 
ing of  a  Jewish  home,  and  certainly  the  home  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  would 
insure  that  from  a  child  He  would  know  the  Scriptures.  Probably  He  went 
with  other  children  to  the  synagogue  school,  and  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jthe 
scribe,  learned  His  earliest  earthly  lesson  from  the  Book  of  Leviticus.|  |He 
would  attend  the  services  of  the  Synagogue,  where  Moses  and  the  prophets 
were  read  and  occasional  addresses  delivered.  A  mind  like  His  would  be 
open  to  all  the  religious  discussions  around  Him ;  and  all  the  story  of  Israel 


*  Delivered  at  the  Seventh  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Congregational  Church,  April  13,  1904. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION— ''IT  IS  FINISHED''.  333 

and  Israel's  hope  would  be  a  growirii^  wonder  to  Him.  It  is  said  of  Schu- 
bert, the  German  composer,  whose  musical  genius,  like  that  of  Mozart,  was 
born  with  him,  that  "  his  teachers  had  nothing  more  to  do  than  to  enlighten 
him  as  to  that  which  lay  in  a  state  of  semi-consciousness,  as  law,  wit/iiti 
him  ".  The  phenomenon,  on  the  natural  plane,  of  genius  like  that  may 
reverently  be  used  to  illustrate  the  genius  of  Jesus  for  religion.  We  can 
understand  how,  from  a  child,  as  He  was  hearing  of  sacrifices,  and  burnt 
offerings,  and  sin  offerings,  there  would  be  a  semi-consciousness  of  some 
coming  harmony — the  harmony  predicted  by  the  Psalmist,  "  Lo,  I  come ;  in 
the  volume  of  the  Book  it  is  written  of  Me,  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God !  yea,  I 
delight  to  do  it.     Thy  law  is  within  My  heart". 

We  are  not  surprised  to  find  Him,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  in  the  "  midst 
of  the  doctors,  both  hearing  them  and  asking  them  questions".  He  passes 
by  the  sights  of  the  holy  city  and  seeks  the  schools  of  the  Rabbis.  The 
promise  of  the  Child — the  wisdom  and  the  grace — is  budding  in  the  Boy. 
I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  familiar  incident.  "  The  law  in  His  heart "  finds 
expression  in  the  penetrating  questions  which  He  asks.  The  learned  Rabbis 
are  astonished  at  His  understanding  and  answers.  He  feels  that  there 
must  be  larger  meanings,  some  fuller  inspiration  beneath  the  letter  of  the 
law,  which,  with  all  its  subtleties,  they  expound  to  Him.  They  wondered 
where  this  Galilean  Boy  had  acquired  His  wisdom.  He  does  not  presume, 
but  He  is  deeply  stirred.  A  consciousness  that  He  has  something  to  teach 
and  to  do  for  God  and  His  people  deepens  within  Him.  It  speaks  when 
His  seeking  parents  find  and  gently  chide  Him :  "  Wist  ye  not  that  I  must 
be  about  My  Father's  business?"  or,  in  My  Father's  house.'  "My 
Father!"  His  mother,  at  His  birth,  had  kept  all  the  wonderful  sayings 
about  Him,  and  pondered  them  in  her  heart.  But  think  of  the  distance 
now  between  His  conception  of  God's  purpose  in  Him  and  His  relation  to 
God,  and  even  a  mother's  thought.  We  find  the  word  Father  used  of  God 
in  a  very  few  passages  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  never  to  describe  His 
relations  with  the  individual.  Jesus  says  "  My  Father  "  with  perfect  artless- 
ness  and  freedom  from  presumption.  He  thinks  aloud,  and  the  truths 
which  have  been  stirring  in  Him  are  revealed.  The  spirit  of  the  Boy  has 
been  growing  into  a  conscious  fellowship  with  God — a  fellowship  so  close 
that,  when  He  speaks  now.  His  earthly  ties  seem  far  away  and  the  Father 
of  His  spirit  the  only  reality. 

But  He  patiently  goes  down  with  them  to  Nazareth  and  is  subject 
unto  them. 

Eighteen  years  pass  before  "  The  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilder- 
ness, prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord  ",  revived  the  dying  hope  of  Israel. 
It  seems  to  have  been  to  our  Lord  the  signal  for  action.  The  conscious- 
ness that  He  "proceeded  forth  and  came  from  God  "  had  been  deepening 
within  Him,  and  now  the  time  had  come  to  put  Himself  on  the  side  of  the 
reform  which  John  preached.  The  "  repentance ",  I  need  only  remind 
you,  was  "  a  change  of  mind  ".  It  meant,  as  a  preparation  for  the  king- 
dom, a  thorough  revolution  and  readjustment  of  thought  in  the  earthly 


334  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

minds  of  the  multitude.  They  must  change  their  earthly,  selfish,  ambitious, 
literal  and  formal  conceptions  of  the  kingdom,  and  expect  a  kingdom  which 
would  account  him  only  a  descendant  of  Abraham,  who  is  one  inwardly, 
cutting  down  the  proud  pretensions  of  those  "  who  bring  not  forth  good 
fruit ".  There  could  be  no  such  change  of  mind  in  our  Lord.  This  was 
His  mind.  But  John  was  preaching  that  preparation,  which  the  ideal  king- 
dom of  His  dreams  demanded.  It  was  clear  to  Him,  that  to  do  His  Fath- 
er's will,  to  "  fulfil  all  righteousness  ",  He  must  put  Himself  openly  into 
conformity  with  that  preparation.  He  avowed,  therefore,  in  baptism  the 
change  of  mind.  "And  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  unto  Him  and  He  saw 
the  Spirit  of  God  descending  as  a  dove  and  coming  upon  Him,  and  lo,  a 
voice  out  of  the  heavens  saying,  this  is  My  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased  ". 

The  moment  He  adjusted  Himself  to  John's  baptism  "  unto  a  change 
of  mind  ",  His  mission  as  the  God-man  dawned  fully  upon  Him.  Whatever 
we  may  think  about  the  objective  appearance  to  Him  and  His  forerunner, 
something  happened  which  convinced  John  that  this  is  the  Son  of  God — 
"He  that  baptizeth  with  the  Holy  Spirit" — and  realized  to  Jesus  the  ful- 
ness of  His  Father's  presence  and  His  anointing  to  be  the  Messiah  of 
Israel.  The  law  and  the  Gospel  met  in  their  representatives,  and  the  Gos- 
pel was  manifested  at  His  baptism.  "  The  law  and  the  prophets  were  ",  said 
the  Lord,  "  until  John  ;  from  that  time  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  preached  ". 

"  Immediately  the  Spirit  driveth  Him  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted 
of  the  devil ".  It  was  the  crisis  of  His  life.  Here  He  would  determine 
how  He  should  act  in  view  of  the  opposition  which  He  knew  awaited  Him. 
It  is  not  essential  to  my  purpose  that  I  should  delay  here  to  enter  fully  into 
the  circumstances,  and  the  many  interesting  questions  which  invest  the 
incident  of  our  Lord's  temptation.  I  have  to  do  with  it,  on  its  subjective 
side,  as  an  inward  conflict  which  it  certainly  was,  whatever  the  form  may 
have  been.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that,  absorbed  in  a  communion  and 
rapt  in  meditations  beyond  our  power  to  conceive,  He  remained  long 
oblivious  to  the  needs  of  the  body.  When  He  came  back  to  the  earthly 
realities,  "  He  hungered  ".  Immediately  the  tempter  whispered,  "  If  Thou 
be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread  ".  Why 
not  ?  He  could  do  it,  for  He  was  the  Son  of  God.  To  feel  the  force  of  a 
suggestion  which  does  not  seem  in  itself  to  be  evil,  is  not  sin ;  but  to  see 
the  evil  in  it,  and  even  for  a  moment  to  acquiesce  is  sin.  "  He  was  tempted, 
yet  without  sin  ".  The  sense  of  His  moral  responsibility  was  too  strong  in 
Him  for  the  pangs  of  hunger  to  overcome  it.  The  suggestion  was  enough. 
For  a  moment  He  felt  its  power,  but  more  probably  in  His  reason  than  His 
appetite.  But  immediately  the  law  in  His  heart  disclosed  the  evil  and 
answered  for  Him,  and  through  Him  to  the  tempter,  "  It  is  written,  man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God  ".  Because  He  was  the  Son  of  God,  He  would  not  command 
stones  to  be  made  bread  for  His  physical  needs.  He  was  in  the  world  to 
realize  a  kingdom  which  should  not  be  "  eating  and  drinking,  but  right- 


I'HE  CRUCIFIXrOX-^^  FT  FS  FTMISHED''.  335 

eousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost ".  He  must  realize  it  by 
subjecting  the  prerogatives  which  He  might  exercise  as  a  Son  to  the  condi- 
tions of  the  humanity  in  which  it  was  to  be  His  sole  business  to  manifest  a 
life  of  the  spirit.  He  must  not  save  Himself.  The  flesh  must  be  subdued 
to  the  spirit  at  every  point  where  He  might  be  tempted  to  help  Himself. 

Adroitly  the  tempter  adapts  himself  to  the  "discovered  mood  "  of  the 
Saviour's  soul.  If  you  may  not  use  your  power  for  personal  ends,  surely 
you  may  presume  upon  your  Sonship  to  cast  yourself  down  from  this  pin- 
nacle of  the  temple,  and,  by  one  splendid  exhibition  of  your  divinity,  pro- 
claim your  Messiahship — for  is  it  not  written,  "  He  shall  give  His  angels 
charge  concerning  thee  :  and  in  their  hands  shall  they  bear  thee  up  ".  It 
did  seem  as  if  some  miracle  like  that  might  aptly  introduce  His  work,  and 
command  at  once  the  reverence  and  attention  of  the  people.  But,  immedi- 
ately, the  word  in  His  heart  detects  and  repels  the  suggestion.  "  Thou 
shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God  ".  To  determine  where  trust  ends  and 
presumption  begins  was  for  Him  a  difficult  problem.  He  would  not  use 
His  Sonship  to  save  Himself.  Could  He  dare  too  much  upon  His  Father's 
love  and  power?  The  point  to  be  strongly  emphasized  is,  that  in  all  these 
temptations,  He  holds  Himself  firmly  in  the  human  relation,  He  meets  and 
defeats  them  as  a  man,  and  in  the  obedience  of  God's  law  for  man.  The 
temptation  to  presume  is  overcome  by  the  determination  to  do  His  Father's 
will  as  a  man,  never  presuming,  never  challenging  a  miracle  by  exposing 
Himself  wantonly  or  unnecessarily  to  danger  or  death,  never  assuming  that 
He  may  dispense  with  prudence,  forethought  and  the  plodding  drudgery  of 
obedience.  Satan,  in  the  last  temptation,  boldly  unmasks  himself.  He 
showed  Him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them,  "All  will 
I  give  Thee",  he  said,  "  if  Thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship  me".  Won- 
derful issue — whether  it  be  objective  reality  or  vision.  The  anointed 
Christ — young  and  human — conscious  of  divine  power^all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  and  the  glory  of  them — ripe  for  a  great  leader — but  the  cost  a 
compact  with  evil — the  alternative  a  cross  with  such  light  of  the  unseen 

and  eternal  beyond, 

"As  never  was  on  sea  or  land". 

The  temptation  was  too  coarse — it  could  only  flash  out  its  lurid  blaze 
long  enough  to  be  seen,  and  then  came  the  indignant  reply,  through  which 
the  God  in  Him  gleamed  like  lightning,  though  it  was  still  from  the  law  in 
His  heart  that  He  spake,  "Get  thee  hence,  Satan,  for  it  is  written,  thou 
shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve  ". 

Completely  dispersed  from  that  hour  was  every  doubt  as  to  the  method 
which  He  must  employ  to  prove  Himself  the  Christ  of  God.  He  sees 
clearly  that  He  may  not  save  Himself — presume  upon  God's  help,  nor  win 
by  popularity,  compromise  or  conforming  to  the  world's  ways.  He  is  put 
upon  His  manhood.  He  knew  that  the  world  would  be  against  Him.  He 
is  determined,  now,  to  meet  and  overcome  it  as  a  son  of  man  in  fellowship 
with  God,  but  walking  with  Him  by  faith,  not  by  sight,  and  learning  obedi- 
ence by  the  things  which  He  must  suffer.     In  all  His  ministry,  from  that 


336  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

time  to  the  end,  this  conception  of  His  work  as  something  to  be  done  in  the 
body — subject  to  its  Umitations,  needs,  infirmities  and  pains  is  always 
present  to  Him.  He  put  away  from  Him,  as  from  Satan,  the  suggestion 
that  He  should  assert  Himself  outside  of  those  limitations  or  attempt  to 
escape  them  when  they  pressed  too  hard.  The  words  of  the  Psalmist,  as 
they  are  rendered  from  the  Septuagint,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
express  at  least  the  idea  which  possessed  Him  :  "  Sacrifice  and  offering 
Thou  wouldest  not,  but  a  body  didst  Thou  prepare  for  me  ". 

What,  we  may  ask  now,  was  His  conception  of  the  work  to  be  done  in 
the  body  ?  It  is  clear  that,  from  the  hour  of  His  temptation,  He  was  com- 
mitted to  self-sacrifice.  The  shadow  of  the  cross  was  upon  Him,  and  it 
deepened  in  His  consciousness  down  to  the  end.  But  the  work  to  be  done 
at  such  a  cost ;  what  do  we  know  about  that  ? 

I  do  not  find  it  necessary  to  limit  myself,  in  the  study  of  this  question, 
to  the  Gospel  of  St.  John,  though  I  might  properly  do  so,  as  the  word 
"Finished"  appears  only  there,  and  the  authority  of  that  Gospel  is,  I 
assume,  accepted  by  this  Conference. 

As  I  study  the  story  of  His  life  variously  recorded,  I  find  that  He 
began  His  ministry  by  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom.  I  ask  myself 
what  is  this  "  Good-news  "  .''  Many  people,  I  believe,  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  are  perplexed  to  know  what  the  Gospel  really  is.  I  do  not  find  it 
in  the  law  of  His  kingdom,  which  He  announces  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  I  am  rather  alarmed  by  its  searching  principles.  But  I  do  begin 
to  catch  some  glimmering  of  the  light  in  the  words,  "  Think  not  that  I  came 
to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets ;  I  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfil — for 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  till  heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  one  jot  or  one  tittle 
shall  in  no  wise  pass  away  from  the  law,  till  all  things  be  accomplished  ".  I 
remember  how,  in  another  place.  He  ventures  to  make  this  same  claim  for 
His  own  words:  "Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  My  word  shall 
not  pass  away  ".  He  speaks  as  one  who  embodies  in  Himself  the  right- 
eousness of  the  law.  The  one  lawgiver  is,  to  Him,  "  My  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  ".  "  I  came  to  fulfil  ".  Through  all  the  teaching  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  there  is  implied  a  fellowship  like  His  own,  with  the  Father  who 
is  in  secret,  or,  "  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  ". 

I  read  on,  and  there  is  much  about  wonderful  works,  which  are  always 
done  to  help,  not  for  mere  display.  I  read  of  Scriptures  to  be  fulfilled, 
which,  I  can  understand,  would  be  of  special  interest  to  His  Jewish  hear- 
ers. I  find  parables  distinctly  Jewish  in  their  application,  but,  through  all, 
there  is  "  One  speaking  with  authority  and  not  as  the  scribes  ".  I  hear  Him 
saying  not  only  "A  greater  than  Jonah  "  and  a  "  Greater  than  Solomon  ", 
but  "  One  greater  than  the  temple  is  here  ".  He  claims  "power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins".  And  then  I  meet  this  saying,  which  is  not  surpassed  in  the 
depth  of  its  spiritual  meaning  by  anything  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  :  "All 
things  have  been  delivered  unto  Me  of  My  Father,  and  no  one  knoweth  the 
Son,  save  the  Father;  neither  doth  any  know  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and 
he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him  ".     And  then  the  gracious 


THE  CRUCIFIXION— ''IT  IS  FINISHED  ".  337 

words,  which  show  to  whom  He  would  reveal  the  Father  and  in  that  fellow- 
ship the  secret  of  rest — "  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest  "  ! 

Reading  on,  I  am  struck  with  the  suggestive  difference  between  His 
sermon  on  the  bread  of  life  in  the  synagogue  at  Capernaum,  and  His  talk 
to  publicans  and  sinners  later,  as  He  went  through  the  cities  and  villages 
teaching  and  journeying  toward  Jerusalem,  and  the  last  Passover.  The 
sermon  at  Capernaum  is  a  baffling  enigma  to  His  hearers,  and  undoubtedly 
He  meant  it  to  be  so.  He  uses  language  entirely  outside  of  their  compre- 
hension. He  leaves  them  baffled  and  asking,  "  How  can  this  man  give  us 
His  flesh  to  eat  ?  "  But  when  He  talks  to  publicans  and  sinners,  while  He 
is  not  unmindful  of  the  Pharisees  who  stand  by,  criticising,  He  appeals  to 
their  hearts  in  parables  which  they  could  understand, — of  the  shepherd 
seeking  the  one  sheep  which  was  lost,  of  the  woman  seeking  diligently  until 
she  finds  the  lost  piece  of  silver,  of  the  prodigal  son,  that  pearl  of  parables, 
in  which  the  Father-heart  which  Christ  came  to  manifest  is  so  beautifully 
pictured.  He  did  not  put  Himself  into  it  because  He  was  the  Word  from 
the  Father,  the  Revealer,  making  known  the  Father's  heart  to  the  sinner. 
In  Him  the  Father  was  "going  out  to  meet  the  prodigal  while  yet  he  was  a 
great  way  off  ". 

Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  agree  in  their  witness  to  the  words  which  He 
spake  at  the  last  supper,  "  He  took  bread  and  blessed  it  and  brake  it ;  and 
He  gave  to  the  disciples  and  said,  take,  eat,  this  is  My  body :  and  He  took 
a  cup  and  gave  thanks  and  gave  to  them,  saying,  drink  ye  all  of  it :  for  this 
is  My  blood  of  the  covenant  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of 
sins  ".  John  omits  the  institution,  but  the  same  conception  appears  in  the 
sermon  at  Capernaum.  "  He  that  eateth  My  flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood 
abideth  in  Me  and  I  in  Him  ". 

The  doing  and  the  teaching  of  Jesus  find  their  unity  in  His  person. 
The  teaching,  apart  from  the  revelation  of  Himself,  is  fragmentary  and 
unsatisfying.  All  is  clear,  when  we  perceive  the  "  I  "  in  Whom  all  centers 
and  from  Whom  the  whole  truth  radiates.  The  good  news  of  the  kingdom 
is  in  Him.  Law,  temple,  poetry  and  prophecy  all  converge  in  His  person. 
He  is  the  focal  point  of  the  historic  past,  and  "  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  " 
is  His  own  word  to  all  the  future.  When  we  read  that  Jesus  did  and  said 
many  things  which  are  not  recorded,  we  wonder  that  in  a  life  so  important 
more  was  not  told.  This  is  explained  when  we  reaUze  that  the  supreme 
purpose  of  the  Gospels  is  to  manifest  a  person,  and  not  merely  to  record 
His  sayings  and  doings.  He  Himself  said  to  the  disciples,  "  I  have  yet 
many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now — howbeit  when 
He,  the  Spirit  of  truth  is  come.  He  will  guide  you  into  all  truth  ".  "  He 
shall  glorify  Me  ".  He  was  to  be  in  His  own  person,  through  death,  the 
fuller  revelation  of  the  Gospel. 

When  we  pass  from  the  Synoptists  to  the  Gospel  of  St.  John  the  spirit 
and  the  life  appear  in  all  their  beauty.  "  We  behold  His  glory  as  of  the 
only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth  ".     It  is  distinctively 


338  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  Gospel  in  a  person.  His  own  conception  of  God's  purpose  in  Him  is 
clearly  revealed.  It  is  expressed  in  so  many  forms  that  we  are  bewildered 
in  our  effort  to  collect  the  scattered  rays  into  some  point  of  light  where  we 
may  intelligently  define  it.  Sometimes  He  has  in  view  the  objects  of  the 
purpose,  and  we  hear  Him  saying,  "  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  are  weary  ". 
"  I  am  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost ".  "  I  came  not  to  call 
the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance  ".  "  If  any  man  thirst  let  Him 
come  unto  Me  and  drink".  Sometimes  His  mind  is  full  of  the  blessings 
consequent  upon  God's  purpose  in  Him,  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free  ".  "  I  am  the  way  and  the  truth  and  the  life  ", 
"  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ".  "  This  is  the  will  of  My  Father,  that 
every  one  that  beholdeth  the  Son  and  believeth  on  Him  should  have  eternal 
life",  "I  am* come  a  light  into  the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  on 
Me  may  not  abide  in  the  darkness  ". 

Eternal  life  seems  to  have  been  the  one  inclusive  end  of  the  purpose ; 
and  that  life,  manifested  in  and  to  be  realized  through  faith  in  the  Son. 

When,  therefore,  we  ask,  as  we  approach  the  cross,  what  the  work  was 
which  the  Father  had  given  Him  to  accomplish  on  earth,  I  think  we  may 
without  presumption  sum  up  the  answer  in  these  statements : — 

I. 

He  was  to  show  iti  Himself  the  creative  idea  of  God  in  humanity.  His 
being  was  to  be  a  revelation.  The  purpose  in  Him  went  back  before  the 
law.  He  dared  to  say  to  the  baffled,  outraged  Pharisees,  "Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  before  Abraham  was,  I  am  ".  They  accused  Him  of  breaking 
the  Sabbath  law.  He  justified  Himself  in  the  unearthly  way  of  putting 
Himself  with  the  eternal,  above  the  laws  of  time,  and  into  the  moral  and 
merciful  purpose  of  the  Creator  Himself,  saying,  "  My  Father  worketh 
hitherto  and  I  work  ". 

It  was  in  a  like  consciousness  of  being  above  time  that  He  uttered  the 
words  of  the  high  priestly  prayer  before  His  death  :  "  I  am  no  more  in  the 
world  and  these  are  in  the  world  and  I  come  to  Thee.  O  righteous  Father, 
the  world  knew  Thee  not,  but  I  knew  Thee ;  and  these  knew  that  Thou 
didst  send  Me;  and  I  made  known  unto  them  Thy  name  and  will  make  it 
known ;  that  the  love  wherewith  Thou  lovedst  Me  may  be  in  them  and  I  in 
them  ".  Who  but  a  Jesus  could  have  had  this  mind — a  mind  which  soars  to 
the  glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was,  and  yet 
gathers  humanity  into  a  purpose  which  He  here  clearly  reveals — the  making 
known  God's  name — Father— the  manifestation  in  His  own  person  of  the 
filial  oneness  (as  Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me  and  I  in  Thee)  and  a  wholly  new 
relation,  and  indeed  creation  to  be  completed  in  a  fellowship  with  the 
Father  and  the  Son  so  real  that  the  "  love  wherewith  Thou  lovedst  Me  may 
be  in  them  and  I  in  them".  Here  is  the  whole  divine  idea.  No  mind  of 
man  could  have  invented  it.  In  this  spiritual  oneness  of  the  human  spirit 
with  the  Father,  through  the  Son,  is  the  life  eternal  which  He  promised. 


THE  CRUCIFIXION— ''IT  IS  FINISHED''.  339 

"This",  He  said,  "is  life  eternal  that  they  might  know  Thee,  the  only  true 
God  and  Jesus  Christ  Whom  Thou  hast  sent  ". 

St.  John  in  the  proem  of  His  Gospel  formulates  the  creative  purpose 
and  carries  us  back  to  the  Genesis.  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  word  and 
the  word  was  with  God  and  the  word  was  God".  He  was  in  the  world  and 
the  world  was  made" by  Him  and  the  world  knew  Him  not.  He  came  unto 
His  own  and  His  own  received  Him  not.  But  as  many  as  received  Him  to 
them  gave  He  the  right  to  become  the  children  of  God,  even  to  them  which 
believe  on  His  name ;  which  were  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the 
flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God  ". 

H. 

The  Christ  jvas  to  make  the  creative  purpose  which  He  incarnated  real- 
izable by  man.  His  obedience  in  the  flesh  was  to  be  not  a  revelation  only, 
but  also  a  redemption.  Sacrifice  was  present  to  Him  from  the  beginning  of 
His  ministry.  He  was  not  like  His  disciples,  "  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all 
that  the  prophets  had  spoken  ".  He  felt  the  shadow  of  the  cross  darkening 
upon  Him  in  all  the  fierce  antagonism  of  the  world's  moral  evil,  personified 
in  the  rulers  of  His  own  people.  How  fully  He  realized  the  meaning  of 
this  antagonism.  His  own  pathetic  words  show :  "  I  am  come  to  send  fire  on 
the  earth  and  what  will  I,  if  it  be  already  kindled?  But  I  have  a  baptism 
to  be  baptized  with,  and  how  am  I  straitened  till  it  be  accomplished".  It 
was  at  a  later  period  when  He  w-as  moving  for  the  last  time  toward  Jeru- 
salem that  He  taught  His  disciples  the  lesson  of  His  great  humility.  "  Even 
the  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  and  to  give 
His  life  a  ransom  for  many  ". 

It  is  evident  that  God's  purpose  of  realizing  for  humanity  the  life  of 
Sonship  with  Himself,  could,  in  our  Lord's  view,  be  accomplished  only 
through  His  death.  How  through  death  He  would  accomplish  it.  His 
words  in  the  high  priestly  prayer  seem  to  show — "  Father,  glorify  Thy  Son, 
that  Thy  Son  may  glorify  Thee.  Even  as  Thou  gavest  Him  authority  over 
all  flesh  that  whomsoever  Thou  hast  given  Him,  to  them  He  should  give 
eternal  life  ".  He  had  said  before  that,  "  As  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself, 
even  so  gave  He  to  the  Son  also  to  have  life  in  Himself  and  He  gave  Him 
authority  to  execute  judgment  because  He  is  the  Son  of  Man".  Clearly 
His  idea  is,  that  the  life-giving  authority  committed  to  Him  as  the  .5"^//  of 
Ma7i.,  must  be  gained  through  and  by  His  death  as  its  inevitable  condition. 
We  have  the  same  idea  expressed  in  His  words  to  the  disciples,  "  It  is 
expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away,  for  if  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  will 
not  come  unto  you". 

He  was  to  die,  not  merely  to  convict  men  of  sin  because  they  had  killed 
the  Prince  of  hfe  and  so  to  leave  them  more  hopelessly  remote  from  God. 
But  He  had  put  Himself  into  their  case  as  the  Son  of  Man,  committed  to 
bear  all  the  consequences  of  their  sin  even  to  the  shame  and  pain  of  being 
reckoned  with  the  transgressors.  He  was  empowered  by  the  Father  to  act 
for  man,  judgment  was  placed  in  His  hands,  but  there  was  no  way  by  which 


340  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN, 

He  could  gain  His  spiritual  throne  as  the  rightful  head  of  a  new,  redeemed 
humanity  save  the  way  of  perfect  subjection  to  the  eternal  righteousness  as 
man  and  for  man,  which  was  the  way  of  the  cross.  His  purpose  was  to 
"  save,  not  to  destroy  ",  but  to  gain  this  power,  which  the  Father  had  com- 
mitted to  Him  and  which  was  the  Father's  purpose  in  Him,  He  could  not 
save  Himself. 

Why  it  was  necessary  that  He  should  bear  our  sins  in  His  own  body 
on  the  cross  of  a  malefactor  remains  in  all  that  He  has  revealed  of  His 
own  consciousness  a  hidden  mystery.  But  in  some  of  His  sayings  there  is 
a  depth  of  insight  which  penetrates  to  the  fundamental  law  of  things.  When 
they  told  Him  that  certain  Greeks  "  would  see  Jesus ",  He  answered 
saying, — "  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the 
earth  and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone,  but  if  it  die  it  beareth  much  fruit ". 
He  had  identified  Himself  with  the  temple,  saying  in  the  full  fruition  of  the 
Boy's  vision, — "  Destroy  this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up". 
Now  He  identifies  Himself  with  the  order  of  nature  itself,  in  its  deepest 
processes  of  evolution,  and  shows  that  sacrifice  is  a  law  of  universal  opera- 
tion and  only  out  of  a  "  self-renouncing,  self-sacrificing  resignation  of  all, 
the  benediction  of  a  richer  fruitfulness,  of  a  glorified  and  multiplied  exis- 
tence, springs  forth  ". 

He  was  the  grain  of  wheat  to  be  harrowed  deeply  into  the  earth.  The 
harvest  of  that  sowing  would  be  bread  for  the  world.  Alford  truly  says  that 
the  symbolism  here  lies  at  the  root  of  that  in  Chapter  6  of  St.  John  where 
He  represents  Himself  as  the  bread  of  life  and  interprets  it  to  be  "  His  flesh, 
which  He  will  give  for  the  life  of  the  world  ". 

He  had  been  born  into  the  human  conditions  to  reveal  God's  creative 
purpose,  to  show  to  men,  in  Himself  the  possibilities  of  Sonship  with  the 
Father,  to  prove  the  reality  of  God's  loving  purpose  by  bearing  upon  His 
own  feeling  their  sorrows  and  sicknesses,  by  enduring  their  scorn  with 
patience  and  making  Himself  the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  But  He 
was  the  grain  of  "  wheat  abiding  alone  by  itself  "  while  He  remained  on  the 
surface  history.  If  He  continued  so.  He  would  simply  be  living  out  the  life 
of  His  divine  kind  apart  and  unproductive.  It  was  a  law  inherent  in  the 
constitution  of  all  nature,  that  the  life  of  God  in  Him,  in  order  to  multiply 
itself  in  harvest  upon  harvest  of  elect  souls,  should  in  its  human  form  be 
planted  into  death. 

He  was  thinking  deeply  into  the  same  natural  order,  which  was  His 
Father's  creative  order,  and  as  much  His  Father's  will,  as  the  "  it  is  written" 
of  Scripture,  when  He  said  to  His  sorrowing  disciples — "a  woman  when 
she  is  in  travail  hath  sorrow  because  her  hour  is  come,  but  when  she  is 
delivered  of  the  child,  she  remembereth  no  more  the  anguish  for  the  joy 
that  a  man  is  born  into  the  world  ".  His  sorrow  and  theirs  were  all  one, 
but  the  reality  was  in  His  deeper  pain,  and  only  through  the  travail  of  His 
soul  could  the  new  man  be  born  into  the  world. 

That  He  did  not  fully  understand  the  necessity  which  compelled  the 
suffering  of  the  cross,  His  own  words  show.    Three  times  as  He  approached 


THE  CR  UCIFIXION—  "  IT  IS  FINISHED  ".  341 

the  end,  His  troubled  soul  speaks.  He  had  compared  Himself  to  the  grain 
of  wheat,  and  then  the  black  realization  settling  like  a  thunder-cloud  upon 
His  soul,  He  cries :  "  Now  is  M)'  soul  troubled  and  what  shall  I  say— Father, 
save  Me  from  this  hour  ?  But  for  this  cause  came  I  unto  this  hour.  Father, 
glorify  Thy  name  ".  We  are  reminded  again  of  the  temptation  in  the  wilder- 
ness. "  Shall  I  pray  as  all  My  human  dread  of  death  impels  Me  to  do. 
Father  save  Me  .^ "  The  spirit  triumphs  in  the  brave  determination, 
"  Father,  glorify  Thy  name  ! "  What  thoughts  are  stirred  as  we  realize  the 
consequences  which  seemed  to  depend  upon  His  unfaltering  courage  in 
that  hour.  He  was  so  truly  human  in  the  struggle  here  as  elsewhere  that 
we  cannot  doubt  the  reality  of  it,  but  being  human,  how  one  almost  trembles 
to  think  that  the  second  Adam  was  here  put  upon  His  trial,  and  what  if  He 
had  faltered  and  "  saved  Himself"? 

He  became  obedient  unto  death,  but  the  death  of  the  cross  was  only 
the  physical  ending  of  His  ^^ suffering  oi  death".  That  He  made  His 
"  soul  an  offering  for  sin  "  in  some  mystery  of  mental  anguish  is  apparent 
from  the  hour  that  He  set  His  face  toward  Jerusalem.  The  sweat  of  blood 
in  Gethsemane  was  the  manifestation  of  an  agony,  greater  than  the  pain  of 
the  actual  cross.  We  cannot  escape  the  conviction  that  the  death  which  He 
died  for  us,  was  this  mysterious  death  in  His  feeling,  the  "  suffering  of 
death",  for  He  cried  "  finished  "  before  He  bowed  His  head  and  gave  up 
the  ghost. 

He  bowed  His  soul  to  the  inexorable  "  7£//7/"  in  Gethsemane.  "  If  this 
cup  may  not  pass  from  Me  except  I  drink  it — Thy  will  be  done  ".  Deep  in 
the  moral  order  was  the  will  that  so  it  must  be  the  "just  for  the  unjust  to 
bring  us  to  God  ". 

But  He  was  comforted  in  all  the  agony  that  was  gathering  upon  His 
soul  by  this  thought,  to  which  He  gives  expression  three  times  in  the  course 
of  His  ministry:  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Myself".  The  depth  of  insight  which  these  words  contain  and  which 
the  event  has  proved,  I  may  only  suggest.  The  power  of  the  cross  in 
making  men  know  themselves,  melting  them  to  contrition,  speaking  pardon 
to  their  convicted  souls,  honoring  the  righteousness  which  their  own  moral 
sense  demands;  satisfying  the  exactions  of  their  consciences,  making  them 
more  afraid  of  the  love  which  forgives  than  of  the  wrath  which  threatens, 
bringing  the  Father-heart  of  the  universe  into  a  real  sympathetic  pulsing 
against  our  hearts,  quickening  new  life,  inspiring  a  passionate  enthusiasm, 
glorifying  the  law  of  sacrifice  as  the  way  to  life  for  all  His  followers — this 
is  a  theme  which  never  grows  old  and  which  no  eloquence  can  exhaust. 

"  Did  e'er  such  love  and  sorrow  meet  ? " 
"  Or  thorns  compose  so  rich  a  crown  ?  " 

HI. 

I  need  only  state  in  words  as  few  as  possible  that  the  Christ  was  also  to 
initiate  a  society  in  and  through  which  His  ivord  and  ivork  should  he  perpetu- 
ated and  witnessed  for  in  the  visible  world  down  to  the  end  of  time.  This 
purpose  appears  in  His  choice  of  the  twelve  recorded  by  the  synoptists  and 


342  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

assumed  in  the  Gospel  of  John  where  they  constantly  appear.  His  sacer- 
dotal prayer  shows  God's  purpose  in  them  :  "  As  thou  didst  send  Me  into 
the  world,  even  so  sent  I  them  into  the  world  ".  Through  them  the  Gospel 
must  be  preached  in  all  the  nations.  He  would  give  them  the  two  simple 
sacraments — the  outward  and  visible  signs  of  the  inward  and  spiritual 
grace — the  initiatory  baptism  and  the  perpetual  bond  and  sacrament  of 
fellowship — the  Lord's  Supper.  The  law  of  their  service  should  be  this : 
"  He  that  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant". 

Their  unity,  and,  through  their  witness,  the  unity  of  all  in  all  time  who 
might  "believe  on  Him  through  their  word",  should  be  in  their  Spiritual 
Head.  "  I  in  them  and  Thou  in  Me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one, 
that  the  world  may  know  that  Thou  didst  send  Me  ". 

As  we  follow  Him  to  the  cross,  shrinking  so  humanly,  and  yet  in  His 
sensitive  nature  so  superhumanly  too,  we  are  brought  to  words  which  seem 
to  disclose  something  of  His  consciousness  during  the  dark  hours  of  suffer- 
ing. "Jesus,  knowing  that  all  thmgs  were  now  accomplished,  that  the 
Scripture  might  be  fulfilled,  saith, '  I  thirst '  ".  At  every  step  of  His  approach 
to  the  cross,  as  indeed  from  His  boyhood,  doubtless,  the  Scriptures  to  be 
fulfilled  had  been  in  His  mind.  "The  law  was  in  His  heart".  He  said  to 
the  disciples,  you  remember,  at  the  Supper, — "  the  Son  of  Man  goeth  as  it  is 
written  of  Him  ".  When  they  went  out  into  the  Mount  of  Olives  again.  He 
said:  "  All  ye  shall  be  oiifended  because  of  Me  this  night,  for  it  is  written, 
I  will  smite  the  shepherd,  and  the  sheep  of  the  flock  shall  be  scattered 
abroad  ".  When  they  came  to  take  Him,  He  forbade  resistance,  and  said : 
"  Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  My  Father  and  He  shall  pres- 
ently give  Me  more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels  ?  But  how  then  shall  the 
Scriptures  be  fulfilled  that  thus  it  must  be .''  "  The  dawning  consciousness 
of  the  Boy  in  the  Temple  had  grown  to  this,  as  the  consummation  on  earth 
of  the  work  His  Father  had  given  Him  to  do. 

In  all  that  tragedy  He  was  not  posing  to  fulfil  the  Scriptures,  but  sus- 
tained by  the  confidence  that  in  all  His  suffering  the  Scriptures  were  being 
fulfilled  in  Him.  It  was  His  meat  to  do  the  Father's  will,  and  that 
will  was  unrolled  to  Him  in  every  experience  even  to  the  moment  of 
darkest,  deepest  depression,  when  His  heart  was  overwhelmed  within  Him; 
but  He  "could  complain",  in  words  which  were  pressed  out  of  His  soul's 
anguish:  "My  God,  My  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?"  When  the 
burning  thirst  consumed  Him,  He  would  naturally  think  in  the  very  words 
of  another  of  those  psalmist  experiences  which  had  always  been  as  parts  of 
Himself.  He  remembered  that  this  was  the  last  drop  in  the  cup.  He 
could  express  His  last  human  need,  and  so  He  gasped,  "  I  thirst ".  They 
gave  Him  the  vinegar  to  drink,  and,  with  the  physical  strength  revived  for 
the  moment.  He  cried  with  a  loud  voice, — "  Finished  ". 

We  cannot  doubt  that  this  consciousness  which  He  would  not  stupify 
was  in  full  vigor  for  that  moment.  The  whole  meaning  of  His  past  had  been, 
we  may  suppose,  in  His  thought  during  the  long  dark  hours. 

He  had  counted  off  the  history  He  had  been  making  by  the  clock  of 


THE  CRUCIFIXION— ''IT  IS  FINISHED''  343 

time.  He  had  spoken  repeatedly  of  His  times,  His  hours,  His  day.  He  had 
said  in  words  best  construed  in  their  simplest  meaning,  "  I  must  work  the 
works  of  Him  that  sent  Me  while  it  is  day,  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 
can  work  ".  The  night  had  come  to  Him  and  He  was  passing  through  it  to 
the  new  morning  of  His  glory. 

Finished  therefore  7vas  His  day''s  7vork  in  the  body.  He  had  put  Himself 
as  the  manifested  God  into  human  history,  making  a  new  day  which 
Abraham  rejoiced  to  see,  and  beginning  a  new  creation  in  the  "  Word  " 
made  flesh,  and  saying  to  the  moral  chaos  of  a  world,  "  Let  light  be  ". 

Finished  was  the  J  elvish  age.  In  another  moment  the  veil  of  the  Temple 
would  be  rent  in  twain.  The  scroll  of  law,  psalm  and  prophecy  would  be 
closed  and  sealed  with  His  blood.  It  was  complete  in  Him  even  from  the 
beginning,  for  the  "  seed  of  the  woman  had  bruised  the  serpent's  head". 

Finished  ^v as  the  manifestation  in  His  person  of  God's  creative  idea,  in 
humanity.  It  had  been  evolving  from  the  beginning  in  and  through  all  the 
Jewish  history.  He  had  caught  the  inspiration  of  the  larger  purpose,  the 
poetry  of  all  the  past  and  made  it  a  reality  in  Himself.  He  had  revealed 
the  new  name  "  Father  "  in  a  real  human  relation  made  perfect  by  suffering, 
achieved  by  faith,  patience  and  courage.  God  was  no  longer  to  be  remote 
in  the  mocking  beauty  or  the  awful  inexorableness  of  nature.  He  had  been 
brought  near.  "  So  loving  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting 
life  ". 

Finished  was  the  full.,  perfect  and  sufficierit  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world,  in  His  perfect  obedience  even  unto  the  death  of  the  cross. 
Exacted  in  the  eternal  counsels  of  the  divine  righteousness,  God  was  satis- 
fied in  Him,  and  He  had  won  the  right  in  righteousness  to  bring  men  out 
of  the  bondage  of  the  old  condemning  law  into  the  freedom  of  the  Spirit, 
even  the  "  glorious  liberty  of  children  of  God  ". 

Finished  was  the  founding  of  His  church  in  the  hearts  of  His  chosen 
ones.  "Other  foundation  could  no  man  lay  than  that  which  was  now  laid  " 
in  humanity.  All  that  should  be  erected  upon  it  in  the  history  of  organized 
Christianity  should  be  abiding  only  as  it  is  built  upon  the  "foundation  of 
the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  Himself  being  the  chief  corner 
stone".  St.  Peter,  distinguished  by  our  Lord  Himself  as  the  confessor  of 
a  true  faith,  is  entitled  to  tell  us  of  our  Lord's  mind,  and  he  has  done  it  in 
the  words :  "  Unto  whom  coming,  a  living  stone,  rejected  indeed  of  men,  but 
with  God  elect,  precious,  ye  also,  as  living  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual 
house,  to  be  a  holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to 
God  through  Jesus  Christ.  Because  it  is  contained  in  Scripture, — '  Behold, 
I  lay  in  Zion  a  chief  corner  stone,  elect,  precious,  and  He  that  believeth 
on  Him  shall  not  be  put  to  shame  '  ". 

All  this  was  finished  for  us  through  the  splendid  faith  of  a  perfect  Son 
of  Man,  who,  in  all  and  through  all  His  work  embodies  the  essential  princi- 
ple of  the  faith  He  requires  of  us  as  essential  to  salvation.  "  Whosoever 
will  save  His  life  shall  lose  it,  but  whosoever  will  lose  His  life  for  My  sake, 
the  same  shall  save  it  ". 


*  THE  RESURRECTION  THE   CROWNING  FACT    OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

tby   rev.   herbert   -wei^ch:,  d.  t)., 

Pastor  of  the  Chester  Hill  Methodist   Episcopal  Church,  Mount 

Vernon,  N.  Y. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  Harnack  began  his  celebrated  lectures  on  the 
nature  of  Christianity  by  telling  his  students  how  important  it  was  "to 
remind  mankind  again  and  again  that  a  man  of  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
once  stood  in  their  midst  ".t  May  not  we  add  that  it  is  likewise  immensely 
important  to  remind  mankind  again  and  again  that  one  named  Jesus  Christ 
once  died  and  rose  again  from  the  dead  ?  For  Strauss  was  not  far  wrong  in 
thinking  that  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  was  "the  centre  of  the  centre, 
the  real  heart  of  Christianity";?  at  least  this  is  true  if  the  first  Christians 
understood  at  all  adequately  the  religion  which  they  were  set  to  preach. 
The  two  main  topics  of  apostolic  teaching  were  the  death  and  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus.  "We  preach  Christ  crucified",  was  the  declaration  of 
Paul  (i  Cor.  I  :  23),  but  side  by  side  with  "the  preaching  of  the  cross" 
(i  Cor.  1:18)  was  the  preaching  of  the  empty  tomb.  In  the  synagogue  of 
Antioch  in  Pisidia  (Acts  13:30-34),  in  that  at  Thessalonica  (Acts  17:  3), 
before  the  philosophers  of  Athens  (Acts  17:  18-31),  and  before  Festus  and 
Agrippa  at  Csesarea  (Acts  26:  23),  to  Jew  and  to  Gentile,  learned  and  igno- 
rant, high  and  low,  Paul  made  known  his  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
and  put  that  fact  in  the  foreground  of  his  preaching. 

In  doing  this,  he  was  making  no  new  Gospel.  "I  delivered  unto  you", 
he  writes  to  the  Corinthians,  "that  which  also  I  received,  how  that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and  that  He  was  buried ; 
and  that  He  hath  been  raised  on  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Script- 
ures" (i  Cor.  15:3,  4).  Peter  in  the  first  Christian  sermon  ever  preached, 
did  not  forget  repeated  emphasis  on  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  (Acts  2  :  24-32) ; 
and  in  Solomon's  Porch  (Acts  3  :  15),  before  the  Jewish  rulers  (Acts  4:  10), 
and  in  the  house  of  Cornelius  (Acts  10:  40),  he  bore  like  testimony.  He 
and  Paul  may  fairly  be  taken  as  representing  the  drift  of  the  public  utter- 
ances of  the  apostles.  "The  Gospel  of  the  kingdom",  and  "the  word" 
which  they  proclaimed  must  have  included  a  large  and  emphatic  statement 
of  these  pivotal  truths.  The  men  who  preached  "the  Lord  Jesus"  (Acts  1 1  : 
20)  at  Antioch  with  such  remarkable  results  doubtless  gave  in  their  story 
as  much  prominence  to  the  passion  and  the  resurrection  as  the  evangelists 
give.  Indeed,  when  the  apostles  were  assured  that  they  were  to  be  "wit- 
nesses "  of  Christ  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  (Acts  1:8),  they  obviously  under- 


*  Delivered  at  the  Eighth  Conference,  held  at  All  Saints  Memorial  Church,  May 

t  President-Elect  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  University. 

X  IVhat  is  Chri'stiajiity  ?    (Eng.  trans.),  p.  i. 

§  Quoted  by  Mair,  Studies  in  the  Christian  Evidences,  p.  232. 

344 


THE  RESURRECTION.  345 

stood  that  the  chief  fact  (distinguishing  fact  from  doctrine)  to  which  they 
were  to  bear  witness,  was  His  resurrection  from  the  dead  (Acts  i  :  22) ;  and 
we  are  shordy  told  that  "  with  great  power  gave  the  apostles  their  witness 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus"  (Acts  4:  33). 

The  fact  thus  strongly  and  continually  asserted  occupied  an  eminent 
place  in  the  minds  of  those  who  heard  and  believed.  The  recognition  of 
the  Lordship  of  Jesus,  which  Harnack  calls  one  of  the  three  characteristic 
features  of  the  earliest  Christian  society,  grew,  as  he  says  himself,*  from  the 
acceptation  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  as  fundamental  facts. 
To  quote  his  own  words,  "The  primitive  community  called  Jesus  its  Lord 
because  He  had  sacrificed  His  life  for  it,  and  because  its  members  were 
convinced  that  He  had  been  raised  from  the  dead  and  was  then  sitting  on 
the  right  hand  of  God  ".t  By  reason  of  its  place,  then,  in  the  apostolic 
preaching  and  in  the  primitive  Christian  faith,  the  resurrection  may  justly 
be  called  the  crowning  fact  of  Christianity.  In  the  matter  of  the  death  of 
Jesus,  the  interpretation — the  doctrine — is  the  vital  thing;  while  with  the 
resurrection,  the  question  of  the  fact  itself  is  crucial. 

But  in  the  second  place,  the  resurrection  occupies  its  pre-eminent 
position  in  the  Christian  scheme,  because  as  a  fact  it  is  most  solidly  attested. 
In  the  presentation  of  the  evidence  John  does  not  greatly  differ  from  the 
other  Gospels.  The  purpose  of  them  all,  as  some  one  has  remarked,  is  not 
to  give  a  history  of  the  events  of  those  eventful  days,  but  to  present  proofs 
of  a  central  fact.  Naturally,  John,  as  Dr.  Sanday  puts  it,  "  selects  what  had 
taken  the  most  personal  hold  on  him  ".t  His  attention  seems  to  be  concen- 
trated on  a  few  individuals.  He  speaks  of  Mary  Magdalene  as  if  she  went 
alone  to  the  sepulchre ;  he  adds  to  Luke's  account  of  Peter's  visit  the  state- 
ment that  he  himself  was  also  there ;  and  he  gives  details  of  both  these 
incidents  which  are  elsewhere  lacking.  He  tells  the  story  of  Thomas' 
doubt  and  faith ;  he  paints  the  picture  of  the  seven  by  the  Sea  of  (xalilee,  in 
which  Peter  and  himself  again  are  prominent.  His  characteristic  thoughts 
and  phrases  appear,  but  his  purpose  is  one  with  the  other  evangelists. 
John's  story  is  in  harmony  with  the  declared  object  of  his  whole  Gospel 
(John  20:31) — that  of  convincing  his  readers  (i)  of  the  historic  truth  of  his 
statements,  as  in  the  case  of  Thomas,  and  (2)  of  their  spiritual  value — "that 
believing,  ye  may  have  life  in  His  name" — as  in  the  case  of  Peter.  The  his- 
toricity of  the  resurrection,  then,  is  a  thought  which  John  shares  and 
enforces  with  the  rest. 

The  prevalence  of  the  belief  has  been  already  suggested.  The  (iospels 
and  the  Epistles  alike  are  stamped  with  it.  And  that  it  was  the  universal 
conviction  among  the  Christians  of  the  second  and  the  first  generations  is 
confirmed,  not,  to  be  sure,  by  the  observance  of  an  Easter  day,  for  though 
it  is  quite  possible  that  this  began  in  the  time  of  the  apostles,  it  can  not  be 
traced  back  farther  than  the  second  century  with  any  certainty;  but  the 


»  op.  cit.,  p.  166. 
t  op.  cit.,  p.  165. 

X  Art.     Jesus  Christ  in  Hastings'  Pictioiiary  of  thf  nihl,-,  vol.  2,  p.  640.    Cf.  Westcott,  Introduction 
to  the  Study  of  the  Oospels,  pp.  327-333. 


346  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

inauguration  of  a  weekly  day  of  rejoicing  on  Sunday  did  take  place  at  once, 
and  can  have  no  other  explanation  than  the  belief  that  on  this  day  the  Lord 
arose.* 

Strongest  of  all  evidence,  however,  is  the  very  existence  of  the  Christian 
Church  itself.  The  disappointed,  timid  and  disheartened  disciples  of  Good 
Friday  were  not  material  out  of  which  to  build  a  conquering  church.  Their 
sudden  transition  from  sorrow  to  joy,  from  gloom  to  hope,  from  weakness  to 
strength  t  can  be  explained  only  by  some  new  faith  which  had  been  born  in 
their  hearts.  What  could  have  instilled  into  them  such  vigor  and  such 
confidence  for  their  impossible  task  ?  Let  Baur  answer !  "  Nothing  but  the 
miracle  of  the  resurrection  [by  which  he  evidently  means  a  belief  in  such 
a  miracle]  could  dispel  the  doubts  which  threatened  to  drive  away  the  faith 
of  the  disciples  after  its  object  into  the  eternal  night  of  death  *  *  *  it 
was  in  this  faith  that  Christianity  acquired  a  firm  basis  for  its  historical 
development  ".t  Gibbon's  five  causes  for  the  spread  of  Christianity  are  not 
enough. §  The  "compact  church  organization  "  was  good,  but  how  did  it 
come  about  that  there  was  a?iy  organization?  The  "pure  morals"  and  the 
"  zeal  of  the  early  Christians  "  were  good,  but  whence  did  they  emerge  into 
life  ?  The  "  power  of  miracles  "  and  the  "  belief  in  future  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments " — did  they  spring  from  a  Christ  who  was  dead,  buried,  lost  ?  The 
apostles  would  have  had  no  heart  to  preach  a  dead  Christ  and  the  world 
would  never  have  received  Him  if  they  had.  Without  the  transformation 
wrought  by  the  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  there  would  have  been 
no  preachers,  no  converts,  no  church.  All  admit  today  that  the  Christian 
Church  was  built  upon  a  tomb  beUeved  to  be  empty — that  the  faith  in  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  created  Christianity.  It  was  more  than  a  clever 
retort  which  Talleyrand  is  reported  to  have  made  to  the  benevolent  ration- 
alist who  lamented  to  him  the  failure  of  his  philanthropic  propaganda.  "  What 
was  he  to  do.-*  "  he  asked.  And  the  witty  ex-bishop  "politely  condoled  with 
him,  feared  it  was  a  difficult  task  to  found  a  new  religion,  more  difficult  than 
could  be  imagined,  so  difiicultthat  he  hardly  knew  what  to  advise  !  '  Still', — 
so  he  went  on  after  a  moment's  reflection, — '  there  is  one  plan  which  you 
might  at  least  try:  I  should  recommend  you  to  be  crucified,  and  to  rise 
again  the  third  day '  ".II  It  was  in  this  way  that  the  disciples  believed  Jesus 
Christ  to  have  founded  His  religion,  and  it  was  this  confidence  which  made 
them  fearless,  persistent  and  triumphant. 

This  belief  needs  to  be  made  clear,  for  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is 
upon  this  belief  of  the  early  Christians  that  we  later  Christians  are  depend- 
ent^ for  our  knowledge  of  the  fact  which  underlies  our  faith.  Harnack 
would  have  us  hold  "the  Easter  faith  ", — "the  conviction  that  the  crucified 
one  gained  a  victory  over  death;  that  He  who  is  the  first-born  among  many 


*  Art.     Lord's  Day  in  Hastings,  op.  cit.,  vol,  3,  p.  140. 
t  See  e.  g.,  Mair,  op.  cit.,  p.  245. 

%  Church  History,  Eng.  trans.,  vol.  i,  p.  42  (quoted  by  Stewart,  Handbook  0/  Christian  Evidences, 
50). 

§Cf.  Schaff,  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  vol.  2,  pp.  17-19. 
II  Natural  Religion,  p.  181  (quoted  by  Mair,  op.  cit.,  p.  231). 
H  Mair,  61/.  cit.,  p.  233. 


THE  RESURRECTION.  347 

brethren  still  lives", — even  though  "the  Easter  message"  of  the  empty 
tomb  and  the  appearance  of  a  transfigured  Lord  may  be  taken  from  us  *. 
The  great  thing,  he  would  say,  is  to  know  that  Christ  now  lives — not  to  dis- 
cover that  He  had  a  physical  resurrection  in  the  garden  of  Joseph.  Now, 
it  is  certainly  true  that  the  knowledge  which  particularly  concerns  us  is  not 
that  of  the  disposition  of  the  Lord's  body,  but  that  of  His  continued  life. 
But  how  are  we  to  gain  this  knowledge?  As  Paul  gained  his,  Harnack 
would  seem  to  answer.  His  faith  was  based  upon  a  personal  revelation  of 
the  Son  of  God  in  him  and  to  him.  To  rest  our  belief  on  anything  less 
personal  and  direct  than  this,  on  the  unstable  foundation  afforded  by  the 
stories  of  Paul  and  of  the  evangelists  concerning  the  post-resurrection 
appearances  of  Christ,  is  to  expose  it  to  destruction  at  the  hands  of  criticism. 
But,  we  ask  once  more,  how  are  we  to  know  that  Christ  is  living,  save 
through  the  medium  of  these  very  appearances?  Our  personal  experience 
does  not  bring  an  original  knowledge  of  that  fact.  However  much  this 
experience  may  at  last  cause  the  outward  evidence  to  seem  superfluous, 
"  none  the  less  ",  as  Dr.  Mason  of  Cambridge  urges  in  his  suggestive  little 
book,  t  "the  first  step  to  this  blessed  assurance  [for  the  disciples]  was  that 
they  had  seen,  or  believed  that  others  had  seen,  the  appearances  of  the  risen 
Lord  ".  And  so  it  must  be  for  us.  Our  faith,  to  be  sane  and  sound,  must 
be  based  upon  no  mere  impression,  but  an  established  fact.t  The  vision 
of  Paul,  which  caused  him  to  declare  at  once  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of 
God  (Acts  9:  20),  was  of  a  quite  exceptional  character,  never  repeated  there- 
after, as  Harnack  admits.5  And  yet,  even  this  vision  might  not  have  been 
so  plain  had  the  report  of  the  empty  grave  not  come  to  Paul's  previous 
knowledge,  as  Harnack  himself  will  not  deny.  If  our  religion  is  to  have 
both  positiveness  and  reasonableness,  the  question  becomes  one  of  supreme 
importance — was  the  belief  of  the  early  Christians,  which  has  come  to  us  as 
the  foundation  of  our  own  faith  and  experience,  based  on  literal  truth  or  on 
a  delusion  ? 

If  we  go  into  the  details  of  the  Gospels  to  answer  that  question,  we 
seem  to  be  in  the  midst  of  confusion.  Ten  discrepancies  in  these  narratives 
of  the  resurrection  have  been  dwelt  on  since  the  day  of  Celsus,  so  Dean 
Farrar  tells  us.H  We  read  the  four  accounis,  and  find  it  hard  to  obtain  an 
exact  story.  How  many  women  came  to  the  tomb  on  that  first  Easter 
morning,  one  or  two  or  three  or  more?  In  one  party  or  two?  At  what 
hour  precisely  was  the  pious  pilgrimage  undertaken  ?  Did  the  women 
behold  one  or  two  mysterious  visitors,  and  within  or  without  the  tomb  ? 
Did  Peter  only,  or  Peter  and  John  make  the  journey  to  the  garden  in  answer 
to  their  summons?  Was  the  first  appearance  of  the  risen  Christ  to  Peter, 
or  to  Mary  Magdalene,  or  to  a  group  of  women  ?     Were  the  later  appear- 


*  op.  cit.,  pp.  173,  174. 

t  Christianity— What  A  It  >  p.  98. 

JCf.  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale,  The  Living  Christ  and  the  Four  Cosptts. 

%Op.  cit.,  p.  174. 

tl  The  Life  0/ Christ,  vol.  2,  p.  432- 


348  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ances  chiefly  in  Galilee  or  around  Jerusalem  ?  *  Was  tbe  resurrection  body  a 
material  body,  as  the  eating  and  drinking  would  suggest,  or  a  spiritual  body  ? 
In  no  part  are  the  Gospel  records  so  variant  as  here  in  the  story  of  the 
resurrection.  Some  of  the  difficulties  can  be  reconciled  by  a  fair  and  judi- 
cious study ;  possibly  all  could  be  accounted  for  by  a  fuller  knowledge  than 
is  afforded  us.  But  granting  that  some  may  remain,  what  facts  are  estab- 
lished by  the  testimony  of  these  independent  witnesses,  who  are  not  solici- 
tous to  display  an  exact  harmony  in  minor  details,  so  confident  are  they  that 
they  follow  no  cunningly  devised  fables  ?  Why,  obviously,  the  great  facts, 
the  essential  facts — the  third  day,t  the  early  hour,  the  women's  visit,  the 
lack  of  expectation  in  the  minds  of  them  or  of  the  apostles,  the  empty  tomb, 
the  repeated  appearances  (nine  or  ten  in  all)  of  the  Master  Himself,  the 
slow  yielding  to  unquestionable  evidence  by  those  who  at  first  disbelieved. 
To  these  momentous  facts  we  have  a  united  witness.  How,  then,  otherwise 
than  on  the  basis  of  truth,  can  these  recorded  experiences  be  explained  ? 
All  who  deny  the  fact  of  the  resurrection — if  they  are  to  be  reckoned 
serious  students  at  all — hold  to  one  of  four  theories :  trance,  legend,  vision, 
or  telegram.!  (i)  The  trance  theory,  maintaining  that  Jesus  did  not  really 
die,  was  killed  by  Strauss  in  an  incisive  passage,  and  need  not  be  further 
referred  to.  (2)  The  legend  theory,  which  claims  that  the  belief  in  the  resur- 
rection was  a  later  growth — the  result  of  certain  vivid  and  picturesque  state- 
ments of  the  apostles'  faith  that  Jesus  was  surely  alive — is  too  evidently  in 
contradiction  to  the  records  and  the  facts  to  need  consideration.  (3)  The 
vision  theory,  which  has  found  many  adherents,  was  fathered  by  Renan, 
who  made  Mary  Magdalene  the  giver  to  the  world  of  a  risen  God,  and  by 
Strauss,  who  argued  from  the  visionary  character  of  Paul's  sight  of  Jesus  on 
the  Damascus  Road  that  the  other  post-resurrection  appearances  of  Jesus 
were  of  the  same  sort,  subjective  and  unreal.  The  objections  to  this  theory 
of  hallucination  are  briefly:  {a)  that  there  was  not  \\\^ preparation  for  such 
visions,  the  lapse  of  time  or  the  state  of  expectancy  which  would  make  such 
visions  natural ;  {b)  that  there  was  not  the  duratioti  or  form  which  would 
characterize  such  visions,  the  appearances  being  confined  within  six  weeks, 
being  few  in  number,  indoors  and  out,  to  groups  and  even  crowds  of  men, 
and,  to  a  degree,  as  Keim  has  remarked,  cool  and  unfamiliar ;  and  (c)  that 
there  was  not  the  termination  which  would  naturally  come  to  such  visions, 
bringing  on  a  reaction,  leaving  the  subjects  dull  and  apathetic,  but  that 
these  limited,  clear  and  tested  appearances  left  the  disciples  resolute,  pur- 
poseful, active.  (4)  The  telegram  theory,  as  Bruce  has  termed  Keim's 
proposed  solution,  would  make  these  visions  still  unreal,  but  objective — a 
kind  of  picture  message  from  heaven  to  assure  the  disciples  of  their  Lord's 
continued  life  and   love.     But  this   theory,   while   involving   supernatural 


*  Sanday,  op.  cit.,  p.  640. 

t  Cf.  Acts  10  :  40;  I  Cor.  15:4. 

J  On  the  general  subject  of  these  theories,  see  Mair,  o/.  cit.,  pp.  249-253  ;  Stewart,  op.  cit.,  pp.  53-55  ; 
Sanday,  op.  cit.,  p.  641  ;  Gilbert,  The  Studetit's  Li/c  0/  Jesus,  pp.  401,  402 ;  Edersheim,  The  Life  atid  Times 
0/  Jesus,  the  Messiah,  \o\.  2,  pp.  625-629;  Bruce,  ^/c/(J^c//(Vs-,  pp.  385-398;  Barrows,  The  Gospels  Are 
True  Histories,  pp.  103-146. 


THE  RESURRECTION.  349 

action  as  fully  as  the  resurrection  itself,  labors  under  the  great  disadvantage 
of  tampering  with  the  Gospel  narratives,  and,  in  addition,  of  making  the 
divine  sender  of  these  messages  responsible  for  a  sure  misunderstanding  on 
the  part  of  the  disciples  and  the  consequent  propagation  of  a  false  notion. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  natural  explanation  of  the  early  Christian 
faith  be  accepted,  if  pesus  in  very  truth  did  rise  from  the  dead,  how  easily  all 
things  fit  together!*  The  character  of  Jesus,  holy  and  unique,  encourages 
us  to  believe  of  Him  what  we  would  not  believe  of  others/  "It  was 
not  possible  that  He  should  be  holden  of  death  "  (Acts  2  :  24).  The  proph- 
ecies of  Jesus  Himself,  contained,  as  they  are,  not  only  in  the  triple 
tradition  of  the  synoptists,  \  but  in  isolated  passages  §  and  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  as  well  (John  2  :  19-21),  help  us  to  believe  the  angelic  word,  "  He  is 
risen,  even  as  He  said"  (Matt.  28:6).  The  testimony  of  the  astounded 
guards,  the  sober  character  of  the  discrepant  records,  with  their  unconscious 
witness  to  the  excitement  and  confusion  of  the  time;ll  the  belief  of  the 
disciples,  after  tests  by  eye  and  ear  and  hand  as  to  the  reality  of  the  bodily 
presence  of  their  Master — these  unite  to  make  plain  that  we  are  dealing 
with  fact,  not  fiction.  The  adaptation  of  the  Gospel  of  a  risen  Christ  to 
humanity  makes  for  the  truth  of  the  teaching,  and  the  broad  conviction  that, 
whatever  incidental  errors  might  find  their  way  into  believers'  minds,^  the 
God  of  truth  would  not  allow  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  to  be  founded  on 
a  delusion.  Despite  all  the  unwillingness  to  accept  a  miracle  that  may  mark 
this  age  of  science,  we  may  heartily  agree  with  a  scientist  like  Prof.  W.  N. 
Rice  in  his  conclusion  :  "  When  we  consider  that,  but  for  the  faith  in  the 
resurrection,  Christianity  would  have  been  buried  forever  in  the  rock-hewn 
tomb  in  which  the  Master  lay,  and  when  we  try  to  measure  what  Christianity, 
with  its  revelation  of  divine  fatherhood  and  human  brotherhood,  and 
redemption  from  sin  and  life  immortal,  has  been  to  mankind  in  these  cen- 
turies of  Christendom  and  Christian  civilization,  and  what  it  promises  to  be 
in  the  glory  of  a  millennial  future,  we  cannot  deem  it  '  a  thing  incredible ' 
that,  in  that  transcendent  crisis  of  man's  moral  history,  '  God  should  raise 
the  dead'".b 

Yes,  the  interests  to  be  served  were  vast.  The  resurrection  is  the 
crowning  fact  of  Christianity  not  only  because  of  its  place  in  apostolic 
preaching  and  primitive  Christian  faith,  not  only  because  of  the  solidity  of 
its  evidence,  but  because  of  its  relations  to  the  doctrine  and  continued  life 
of  the  church.c  Four  such  relations  may  be  specified  as  illustrate  the  out- 
come of  the  resurrection  : 


*Mair,  op.  cit.,  pp.  234-249. 

t  Barrows,  op.  cit.,  pp.  64-67;   Rice,  Christian  Faith  in  an  Age  0/ Scii-ncf,  pp.  357-359. 

I  Matt.  20:  19  with  Mark  10:  34,  and  Luke  18:  33;  Matt.  16:21  with  Mark  8:  31  and  Luke  9:23. 

§  Matt.  12  :  40;  27:  63;  Matt.  17:  9  with  Mark  9:  9;  Matt.  17:  23  with  Mark  9:  31;  Matt.  26:  32  with 
Mark  14:  28. 

II  Stewart,  op.  cit.,  p.  52. 

a  See  c.  g.,  McGiffert,  The  Apostolic  Age,  pp.  36-44. 
b  Op.  cit.,  p.  360. 

c  Cf.  Sanday,  op.  cit.,  p.  642.     The  results  of  a  loss  of  belief  in  the  resurrection  are  depicted  in  strong, 
but  hardly  too  lurid,  colors  by  Mr.  (iuy  Thorne  in  his  recent  novel,  "  When  It  Was  Dark  ". 


3 so  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

(i)  The  relation  of  the  resurrection  to  the  miraculous.  If  this  one 
miracle  is  once  firmly  established,  the  a  priori  improbability,  of  which 
Hume  made  so  much,  may  be  considered  fairly  met  and  mastered ;  the  way 
is  open  for  an  impartial  consideration  of  all  alleged  miracles  on  their  indi- 
vidual evidence.  Professor  Rice,  in  the  able  and  stimulating  volume 
already  quoted,  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  "  our  chief  reason  for  believing 
in  any  other  miracle  as  historic,  is  that  the  strong  evidence  for  the  resur- 
rection suffices  to  establish  a  probability  that  miracle  is  a  part  of  the 
divine  plan  of  revelation  ";*  and  I  believe  he  is  right.  Nay,  more,  it  sug- 
gests in  a  wider  way  that  the  observed  and  experienced  order  of  nature  is 
not  so  limited  by  our  knowledge  of  it,  or  so  fixed  and  invariable  by  some 
eternal  decree  concerning  it,  that  nothing  unprecedented  can  be  expected 
or  believed.  It  makes  one  humble  and  teachable  to  remember  that  he  has 
to  do  with  the  God  who  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead.  Harnack  may  believe 
in  an  "  inviolable  "  order  of  nature,  and  may  insist  that  the  feeling  of  free- 
dom in  God's  world  which  the  religious  man  enjoys — the  certainty  "that  he 
is  not  shut  up  within  a  blind  and  brutal  course  of  nature  ",  but  that  he 
deals  with  a  power  who  sometimes  (as  we  see  it)  breaks  through  or  arrests 
that  order — that  this  feeling  is  but  a  fancy  or  a  metaphor;t  but  if  he 
accepted  the  resurrection  as  literal  truth,  he  could  strike  out  the  word 
"  inviolable  ".  Historically,  God  has  manifested  Himself  for  special  ends 
in  miraculous  works  wrought  through  human  hands ;  in  present  experience, 
God  does  manifest  Himself  in  ways  that  are  startling  and  incomprehensible 
to  the  little  thoughts  of  the  finite.  Christianity  is  something  more  than  the 
feeble  human  attempt  to  obey  the  teachings  and  to  imitate  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  If  it  means  anything,  it  means  "  God  with  us  ".  A 
Christianity  with  no  surprises,  no  incredibilities,  is  a  Christianity  with  no 
power.  But  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  opens  the  door  to  faith  in  the 
superna.tural  in  human  affairs.  Spiritual  experiences  are  real,  Providence 
and  prayer  are  real,  temporalities  as  well  as  spiritualities  are  in  the  hands 
of  a  Father,  unto  whom  "  in  everything  "  our  requests  may  be  made  known. 
The  "order  of  nature  "  is  His  servant,  not  His  master,  and  the  universe 
shall  be  moulded  to  meet  His  children's  need. 

(2)  Look,  agam,  at  the  relation  of  the  resurrection  to  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  It  is  asserted  by  many  today  that  the  only  test  of  religion  is  experi- 
ence— that  a  truth  must  become  to  us  truth  as  it  shines  in  its  own  inherent 
light,  that  it  must  commend  itself  in  the  fashion  of  an  axiom,  so  as  to  be 
recognized  when  seen.  By  none  has  this  teaching  been  more  strongly  and 
persuasively  set  forth  than  by  the  late  Auguste  Sabatier,  in  his  monumental 
work,  "  Religions  of  Authority",  only  recently  translated  into  English.  He 
will  have  nothing  of  a  religion  based  on  external  authority,  authenticated  by 
miracle  and  the  like.  The  appeal  must  be  the  direct  appeal  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  to  the  spirit  of  man.  Jesus,  be  says,  brought  in  no  new  religious  ideas. 
His  one  secret  was  in  His  consciousness  of  Sonship  in  the  Father,  and  His 


*  op.  cit.,  p.  352. 
t  Op.  cit.,  pp.  29-30. 


THE  RESURRECTION.  351 

one  work  was  to  communicate  this  consciousness  to  His  followers.  The 
historical  element,  as  concerns  both  the  works  and  the  words  of  Jesus,  is 
depreciated,  as  it  was  earlier  by,  for  example.  Professor  T.  H.  Green,  of 
Oxford.  The  ideas  of  God  and  man  and  their  relations  which  we  Christians 
have,  are,  so  this  school  contends,  "  self-evidencing  and  eternal,  and  possess 
an  inherent  truth  and  vitality  entirely  independent  of  the  accidental  vehicle 
through  which  they  were  introduced  into  the  consciousness  of  mankind  ". 
Such  teachers,  we  gladly  admit,  have  a  spiritual  message  which  is  whole- 
some for  our  age,  even  in  its  defects;  but  such  teachers,  we  must  urge,  do 
not  know  men  as  Jesus  Christ  knew  them.  He  also  laid  stress  upon  the 
direct  appeal  to  the  human  heart — "  Believe  me".  He  cries,  "that  I  am  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  Me  " — as  if  He  would  ask,  "  Can  you  not  see 
it  ?  Do  you  not  feel  it  to  be  so  ?  "  And  yet  He  recognized  that  men  could 
not  all  and  everywhere  and  always  rise  by  pure  hearts  and  clear  eyes  to  see 
the  truth  immediately  as  it  was  in  Him.  And  He  adds  a  second  reason — 
"  Or  else  believe  Me  for  the  very  works'  sake  "  (John  14:11).  He  does  not 
disdain  the  testimony  of  external  signs  and  witnesses.  To  the  multitude  of 
the  ignorant  and  the  sinful  the  pure  message  needs  to  be  authenticated  by 
the  works — stamped  with  the  authority  of  the  Teacher  sent  from  God. 
And  many  profess,  with  Nicodemus,  "  We  know  that  Thou  art  a  teacher 
come  from  God ;  for  no  man  can  do  these  signs  that  Thou  doest,  except 
God  be  with  him"  (John  3:2).  The  miraculous  accompaniments  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  may  prepare  the  way  for  His  message,  and  then  add 
impressiveness  to  it.  This  has  been  well  put  by  Professor  Rice,  whose 
words  I  must  once  more  quote  :  "  The  evidence  of  miracle  is  still  valid  and 
still  needed.  We  stand  in  an  upper  room  in  Jerusalem,  and  listen  to  the 
words  with  which  the  young  Prophet  of  Galilee  comforted  His  disciples  on 
the  last  night  of  His  life  :  '  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled ;  ye  believe  in 
God,  believe  also  in  Me.  In  My  Father's  house  are  many  mansions :  if  it 
were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  phce  for  you.  And 
if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come  again,  and  receive  you  unto 
Myself ;  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also  '.  Beautiful  words,  in  their 
sweet  simplicity,  and  in  their  accord  with  our  highest  moral  sentiment,  our 
hoUest  aspirations.  Words  so  beautiful  ought  to  be  true.  But  are  they  the 
words  of  one  who  speaks  with  authority  and  whose  word  can  be  trusted,  or 
are  they  only  the  sweet  dreams  of  a  spirit  too  pure  and  gentle  for  this  hard, 
rough  world  ?  To  us,  as  to  those  disciples  who  heard  Him,  the  evidence  of 
the  authority  of  His  teaching  is  found  in  the  fact  of  His  resurrection  ".* 

(3)  Consider,  also,  the  relation  of  the  resurrection  to  the  question  of 
the  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  Whether  the  secret  of  that  personality  be  con- 
ceived as  residing  in  the  filial  consciousness  of  Jesus,  or  in  His  metaphysi- 
cal relation  to  the  Father,  the  full  declaration  of  the  personality  awaited  this 
supreme  event  in  His  history.  He  was  "  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  by 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead"  (Rom.  i  :4).  The  intimations  of  His  Mes- 
siahship  had  been  repeatedly  given,  and  statements  had  been  made  bearing 

*  op.  cit.,  p.  384. 


352  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

upon  the  deeper  mysteries  of  His  nature.  But  the  truth  did  not  yet  become 
plain  to  His  disciples.  "  The  conviction  was  gradually  formed ",  writes 
Dr.  Mason,*  "  until  at  last,  after  the  resurrection,  the  disciple  who  had, 
perhaps,  been  slowest  to  believe  the  Easter  tidings,  because  he  felt  more 
than  others  the  stupendous  nature  of  the  Easter  belief  which  he  instinctively 
felt  must  lie  behind  it,  gave  expression  to  that  which  was  thenceforth  the 
belief  of  Christendom.  '  My  Lord ',  he  said — as  he  had  doubtless  said 
many  times  before — recognizing  the  identity  of  the  risen  Jesus  ;  and  then  he 
sprang  to  the  height  of  that  confession  which  human  lips  had  never  as  yet 
uttered,  although  every  disciple's  heart  had  silently  been  ripening  to  utter 
it — the  confession  that  his  Lord  was  his  God  ".  It  was  only  the  risen  Lord 
whom  the  disciples  knew  as  divine.  It  was  Christ  with  the  majesty  of  the 
opened  tomb  upon  Him  who  commanded  the  reverential  awe  of  the  apos- 
tles, so  that  He  who  for  three  years  had  been  the  object  of  love  now  became 
also  the  object  of  worship.  It  was  after  the  resurrection  and  because  of 
the  resurrection  that,  to  borrow  Dr.  Sanday's  words,  not  here  and  there, 
one  and  another,  "but  the  whole  Christian  Church  passed  over  at  once  to 
the  fixed  belief  that  He  was  God  ". 

(4)  Finally,  let  not  the  relation  of  the  resurrection  to  the  saving  work 
of  Jesus  be  forgotten.  Without  the  death  of  Jesus  there  is  no  Gospel ;  with- 
out His  resurrection  there  is  no  assurance  of  the  Gospel's  truth.  The  resur- 
rection put  the  seal  on  the  work  of  Jesus,  as  well  as  on  His  person.  His 
death  and  resurrection  were  both  "  according  to  the  Scriptures  "  (i  Cor. 
15:7),  that  is,  they  had  a  divine  meaning,  a  setting  in  a  long  providential 
order.t  They  completed  and  authenticated  the  plan  of  redemption.  The 
work  of  Jesus  was  now  not  only  humanly  finished,  but  divinely  accepted. 
The  "  martyr  "  became  evidently  a  Saviour. 

The  question  of  the  victory  of  goodness  was  settled  once  for  all.  Jesus 
had  bidden  the  disciples  "be  of  good  cheer",  for  He  had  "overcome  the 
world"  (John  16:33).  But  hard  upon  the  words  followed  the  awful  death, 
the  seeming  failure  and  defeat.  Sadly  they  confessed  to  a  hope  for  God's 
kingdom  which  had  died  and  been  buried  with  their  Master  (Luke  24  :  21). 
Utter  purity  had  seemed  to  be  helpless  in  a  world  of  sin,  and  righteous- 
ness, in  its  one  supreme  manifestation,  to  be  impotent.  But  then  comes  a 
change.  Jesus  Christ  is  to  be  "placarded  before  the  eyes  "  of  men  (Gal. 
3:1),  not  simply  as  the  crucified,  not  as  the  dead  leader  of  a  lost  cause,  but 
as  a  living  king  under  whose  feet  one  more  enemy — the  last  and  greatest — 
has  been  trampled  (i  Cor.  15  :  26  ;  2  Tim.  i  :  10).  His  crucifixion  has  seemed 
to  be  a  token  of  weakness ;  His  living  again  is  a  token  of  God's  might  (2 
Cor.  13  :4).  There  is  a  power  behind  and  in  His  resurrection  (Phil.  3  :  10), 
a  "  mighty  power  "  shown  in  that  working  "  which  God  wrought  in  Christ 
when  He  raised  Him  from  the  dead  "  (Eph.  i  :  20) — a  power  sufficient  to 
every  need  of  the  great  enterprise  which  is  now  begun.  "All  power  is 
given  unto  Me  ",  cries  the  risen  Lord,  "  go  ye,  therefore  "  (Matt.  28  :  18,  19). 


*  op.  cit.,  p.  106. 
t  MasOD,  op.  cit.,  p. 


THE  RESURRECTION.  353 

Nothing  is  now  too  good  to  be  believed,  nothing  too  great  to  be  attempted. 
Righteousness  is  vindicated  as  the  mastering  force  of  the  universe.  The 
death  of  Jesus  is  seen  to  be  only  an  example  under  the  general  rule  of 
"  dying  to  live  ".  Obstacles  can  be  despised,  enemies  loved,  death  itself 
faced  without  terror,  for  Jesus  Christ  has  confronted  and  conquered  all. 
To  the  disheartened  soldier  comes  the  glad  tidings  that  his  captain  has  not 
quit  the  field.  In  the  exultant  words  of  another,  "All  the  wealth  of  His 
deep  interest,  His  spacious  human  sympathy,  His  rich  tenderness  of  dis- 
position, His  inspiring  hopefulness,  His  invincible  energy,  and  the  strength 
of  His  redemptive  purpose,  have  been  untouched  by  the  desolating  hand  of 
death.  There  they  are  just  behind  the  veil,  which  half  conceals  and  half 
reveals  them.  The  world's  greatest  asset  is  still  valid.  The  one  Spirit 
whom  failure  could  not  daunt  nor  despondency  enervate  is  still  there.  The 
one  Being  whose  beauty  could  subdue  the  worst,  whose  love  could  melt  the 
hardest  into  contrite  penitence,  and  who  held  the  key  to  every  man's  heart, 
is  alive,  interested,  active,  sympathetic.  That  surely  is  the  spring  of  our 
largest  hope,  the  root  of  our  assured  confidence,  the  ground  of  our  invinci- 
ble optimism  ''.  He  was  "  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead"  (Rom.  i  :4). 

But  this  power  of  God,  exerted  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  to 
be  the  pledge  not  only  of  the  victory  of  the  kingdom,  but  of  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  individual  believer.  The  kingdom  is  to  spread  within  as  well  as 
without.  Jesus  "  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was  raised  again  for 
our  justification  "  (Rom.  4  :  25).  So  close  is  the  truth  of  the  resurrection  to 
the  spiritual  life  that  he  who  accepts  with  his  heart  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
(with  all  that  that  implies  of  Saviourhood  and  Lordship)  shall  be  saved 
(Rom.  10  :9  ;  Col.  2:12).  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  was  more  than  a  figure 
of  the  rising  from  the  death  of  sin  to  the  life  of  righteousness ;  it  was  also  a 
means  to  this  resurrection  of  the  believer  by  his  mystical  union  with  the 
risen  Christ  (Rom.  6  :4-io).  It  was  a  Gospel  of  the  death  and  resurrection 
of  Jesus  by  which  the  Corinthians  were  saved  (i  Cor.  15  : 1-4),  and  it  will  be 
such  a  Gospel  that  will  in  every  age  have  power  enough  to  transform  lives, 
and  vitality  enough  to  transmit  itself  to  a  generation  yet  to  come.  "  The 
God  of  Peace  "  it  is,  "  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus  ", 
who  will  "  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  His  will,  working  in 
you  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight"  (Heb.  13  :2o,  21). 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus,  moreover,  is  a  pledge  of  the  completion  of 
His  work  of  grace  by  the  coronation  of  the  spiritual  life  with  the  final 
gift  of  immortality.  Jesus  is  but  "the  first-fruits  of  them  that  slept" 
(i  Cor.  15  :  20).  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also  "  is  His  message  to  His 
own.*  The  thought  of  the  future  was  purified  and  elevated  above  the 
material  plane  by  the  exhibition  of  that  resurrection  body  with  its  strange 
pneumatic  qualities,  and  the  obvious  suggestion  that  the  resurrection  life 
was  no  return  to  former  condition,  as  the  Jews  had  naturally  thought,  but  the 
beginning  of  a  new  and  glorified  life.t     But  more  than  this,  the  resurrection 


*Cf.  I.  Thess  4: 14:  I  Cor.  6:  14;  2  Cor.  4:  14. 

*  Mason,  op.  cit.,  pp.  95-98.     Gilbert,  op.  cit.,  pp.  400  ff. 


354  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

qf  Jesus  has  given  to  the  world  its  clearest  assurance  of  any  life  beyond  the 
grave.  The  Gospel  through  which  "  life  and  immortality  were  brought  to 
light"  (2  Tim.  i  :  10)  was  the  Gospel  of  the  empty  grave.  Even  Harnack 
says,  in  words  that  glow  with  feeling:  "Whatever  may  have  happened  at 
the  grave,  and  in  the  matter  of  the  appearances,  one  thing  is  certain :  This 
grave  was  the  birthplace  of  the  indestructible  belief  that  death  is  vanquished 
a?id  there  is  a  life  eternal.  It  is  useless  to  cite  Plato ;  it  is  useless  to  point  to 
the  Persian  religion,  and  the  ideas  and  literature  of  later  Judaism.  All  that 
would  have  perished,  and  has  perished,  but  the  certainty  of  the  resurrection 
and  of  a  life  eternal  which  is  bound  up  with  the  grave  in  Joseph's  garden 
has  not  perished,  and  on  the  conviction  that  Jesus  lives  we  still  base  the 
hopes  of  citizenship  in  an  eternal  city  which  make  our  earthly  life  worth 
living  and  tolerable  ".*  In  the  confidence  that  He  has  gone  to  prepare  a 
place,  we  may  still  repeat  the  unwavering  words  of  Browning: 

"  O  Saul,  it  shall  be 
A  Face  like  my  face  that  receives  thee ;  a  Man  like  to  me 
Thou  shalt  love  and  be  loved  by  forever ;  a  Hand  like  this  hand 
Shall  throw  open  the  gates  of  new  life  to  thee  1    See  the  Christ  stand !  "  t 

The  Christianity  that  in  history  has  proved  a  conquering  power  lies  not 
merely  in  the  things  which  Jesus  said,  as  Harnack  would  have  us  believe  ; 
not  merely  in  the  things  which  Jesus  felt  as  a  Son  of  God,  as  Sabatier  would 
teach  us ;  but  in  what  He  said  and  felt  and  was  and  did ;  and  these  all  find 
their  climax  and  their  crown  in  His  resurrection  from* the  dead.  "  Blessed 
be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which,  according  to  His 
abundant  mercy  hath  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope  by  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  "  (i  Pet.  i  :  3). 

"  One  thing 
Remained,  however, — one  that  tasked 
My  soul  to  answer;  and  I  asked 
Fairly  and  frankly,  what  might  be 
That  History,  that  Faith,  to  Tne'*"\ 

"  In  the  biography  of  Dr.  Dale  there  is  the  record  of  an  experience 
which  is  one  of  the  great  things  in  our  modern  Christian  life.  He  was 
writing  an  Easter  sermon,  and  when  half  way  through  the  thought  of  the 
risen  Lord  broke  in  upon  him  as  it  had  never  done  before.  '  Christ  is 
alive',  I  said  to  myself;  'alive',  and  then  I  paused;  '  alive ',  and  then  I 
paused  again;  'alive!  Can  that  really  be  true?  Living  as  really  as  I 
myself  am  ? '  I  got  up  and  walked  about,  repeating,  '  Christ  is  living,  Christ 
is  living ! '  At  first  it  seemed  strange  and  hardly  true,  but  at  last  it  came 
upon  me  as  a  burst  of  sudden  glory ;  yes,  Christ  is  living.  It  was  to  me  a 
new  discovery.  I  thought  that  all  along  I  had  believed  it,  but  not  until  that 
moment  did  I  feel  sure  about  it.  I  then  said,  '  My  people  shall  know  it ;  I 
shall  preach  about  it  again  and  again,  until  they  believe  it  as  I  do  now ' ". 


*  op.  cit.,  p.  175. 

f^Saul,  18. 

J  Browning,  Christmas  Eve  and  Easier  Day,  14. 


THE  RESURRECTION.  355 

The  need  of  the  hour  is  to  make  the  resurrection  not  simply  a  historical 
fact,  accepted  by  the  intellect  as  proved,  but  a  real  truth  in  the  heart  and 
conscience,  manifested  in  a  life  surrendered  to  the  dominion  of  a  risen 
Lord  and  spent  in  the  fellowship  of  a  living  Friend. 


*  THE  TWENTY-FIRST  CHAPTER  OF  THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO 

ST.  JOHN. 

by  rev.   henry   g.   weston,   d.   r>.. 

President  of  Crozer  Theological  Seminary,  Chester,  Penn. 

There  has  been  some  difference  of  opinion  among  learned  men  as  to 
the  writer  of  this  chapter,  the  time  of  its  composition  and  its  relation  to  the 
preceding  portion  of  the  Gospel.  A  study  of  the  chapter  will  show  that  it 
constitutes  an  organic  part  of  the  Gospel,  that  it  is  the  appropriate  epilogue 
demanded  by  the  prologue,  if  these  terms  may  be  used,  and  that  it  has  all 
the  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  Gospel.  The  external  evidence  against  it 
is  weak,  and  the  internal  evidence  decisive  in  its  favor. 

The  Gospel  of  John  is  the  Gospel  of  the  manifestation  of  Christ.  This 
chapter  contains  an  account  of  His  final  manifestation  to  His  disciples.  It 
is  the  third  manifestation  (not  appearance)  after  His  resurrection.  It  differs 
from  the  two  preceding,  first,  in  that  it  is  not  made  to  the  assembled  disci- 
ples, but  to  a  select  number — seven ;  second,  that  it  is  a  manifestation  by  a 
miracle.  The  miracles  in  this  Gospel  diifer  in  several  respects  from  those 
recorded  by  the  Synoptists.  They  are  much  fewer  in  number,  only  eight ; 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  court  officer's  child,  they  are  self  moved, 
not  demanding  faith  on  the  part  of  the  recipient,  nor  wrought  primarily  for 
the  recipient's  benefit.  There  is  no  prohibition  of  publicity  ;  on  the  contrary, 
they  are  signs,  and  as  such,  are  wrought  for  the  express  purpose  of  being 
known.  As  the  Gospel  of  John  is  the  Gospel  of  the  future,  the  miracles  are 
all  promises  and  prophecies.  They  are  manifestations  of  His  glory,  of  the 
glory  that  is  to  be  revealed,  of  which  His  church  is  to  be  partaker  (i  Peter 
5:  I,  4,  10). 

The  miracle  with  which  this  chapter  opens  is  a  manifestation  of  the 
glory  that  shall  be  revealed.  Compare  it  with  a  similar  miracle  wrought  at 
the  beginning  of  the  church's  work.  You  will  find  the  account  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Luke.  It  is  the  prophecy  of  the  work  of 
the  church  during  this  age.  Christ  is  in  the  boat ;  a  great  number  of  all 
kinds  of  fishes  are  caught ;  the  products  of  the  cast  are  taken  into  the  boat, 
which  begins  to  sink ;  the  church  is  imperiled  by  its  very  success.  These 
fishes  are  good  and  bad ;  the  separation  awaits  the  time  when  the  angels 
shall  come  forth  and  sever  the  wicked  from  among  the  just.  In  the  miracle 
we  are  studying,  the  Lord  is  on  the  shore ;  the  fishes  are  drawn,  not  into  the 
boat,  but  to  the  land;  they  are  not  an  unknown  multitude,  of  unknown 
quality,  good  and  bad;  they  are  all  great  fishes  the  exact  number  of  which 
is  known,  a  hundred  and  fiifty  and  three.     It  is  the  manifestation  of  the 


^  Delivered  at  the  Seventh  Conference,  held  at  the  Central  Congregational  Church,  April  13,  1904, 


THE  TlVENTi 'FIRST  CHAPTER.  3 5 7 

glory  of  that  morning  when  the  night  shall  have  been  spent  and  the  long 
looked-for  day  has  come ;  when  Christ  appears  to  consummate  salvation ; 
when  the  church,  holy  and  without  blemish,  without  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any 
such  thing,  takes  her  place  as  Christ's  bride.  At  the  marriage  feast,  there 
is  manifested  that  pecuUar  characteristic  of  the  work  of  salvation,  the  blessed 
union  of  the  human  and  divine,  the  joint  results  of  those  who  have  been 
workers  together  with  God  and  of  Him  who  has  been  working  in  them  of 
His  good  pleasure.  "  As  soon  then  as  they  were  come  to  land,  they  saw  a 
fire  of  coals  there,  and  fish  laid  thereon  and  bread,  and  the  Lord  said  to 
them,  bring  of  the  fish  which  ye  have  now  caught ",  So  may  God  grant 
that  He  speak  to  us. 

But  if  He  is  so  to  speak  to  His  church,  there  must  be  time  for  the 
church  both  to  make  herself  ready  for  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb,  and 
time  to  provide  for  that  portion  of  the  feast  which  she  is  to  furnish.  The 
marriage  feast  was  not  possible  on  the  day  of  Pentecost ;  it  could  not  come 
in  the  first  century ;  the  delay  of  our  Lord's  coming,  as  Peter  tells  us,  is  for 
salvation  (2  Peter  3 :  15).  There  must  be  long  years  of  faith  and  hope  and 
prayer  and  work  during  which  the  church  must  fit  itself  and  be  fitted  for  its 
high  estate,  and  its  members  be  gathered  in  from  the  ranks  of  the  world- 
This  long  time  is  a  season,  not  of  idle  expectation,  gazing  up  into  heaven, 
but  of  work  and  warfare  and  suffering  for  Christ,  of  laying  hold  of  that  for 
which  the  church  was  laid  hold  of  by  Jesus  Christ,  a  time  in  which  every 
building,  fitly  framed  together  is  growing  into  a  holy  temple  in  the  Lord, 
all  Christians  being  builded  together  into  a  habitation  of  God  through  the 
Spirit. 

To  this  end  Christ  sanctifies  Himself.  He  continually  works  in  His 
people  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  by  their  daily  renewal  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  end  at  which  He  is  aiming  can  not  be  attained  without  the 
constant  co  operation  of  the  church  itself.  This  principle  holds  in  every 
form  of  human  attainment.  No  money,  care,  or  effort  can  educate  a  boy 
without  the  boy's  own  earnest  endeavor.  To  the  church  Christ  gives  the 
commission  with  which  the  Gospel  according  to  John  closes,  just  as  the  first 
Gospel  closes  with  the  other  great  commission  to  disciple  all  the  nations. 
But,  you  say,  Christ  is  here  addressing  Peter.  Yes,  but  not  to  Peter  as  an 
individual  were  the  three  directions  which  we  are  about  to  study  given  any 
more  than  the  commission  in  Matthew  is  given  to  the  eleven.  The  apostles 
did  not  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature;  on 
the  contrary,  when  the  first  persecution  broke  out  against  the  church  in 
Jerusalem,  all  were  dispersed,  except  the  apostles. 

A  careful  perusal  of  the  Gospels  will  show  you  that  wherever  Christ 
segfregates  the  apostles,  or  a, portion  of  them,  and  gives  them  instruction, 
He  always  addresses  them  as  the  prospective  church,  and  the  directions  He 
gives  cover  the  whole  dispensation.  The  threefold  trust  committed  to  Peter 
when  they  had  breakfasted  is  no  more  committed  to  him  as  an  individual 
than  were  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  as  related  in  the  sixteenth  chapter  of 
Matthew.     The  keys  of  the  kingdom  were  committed  to  the  church  which 


3S8  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

still  holds  them ;  no  man  enters  the  kingdom  except  through  the  instrumen- 
taUty  of  the  church.  Peter  was  chosen  by  Christ  to  be  the  representative 
and  mouth-piece  of  the  twelve  apostles  who  stood  before  him  as  the  pro- 
spective church. 

In  the  words  addressed  by  Christ  to  Peter  as  the  representative  of  the 
church  there  are  a  threefold  question,  a  threefold  answer,  and  a  consequent 
threefold  charge. 

Why  is  this  question  asked,  and  why  is  it  asked  three  times  ? 

Because  the  one  fundamental,  essential,  indispensable  qualification  for 
those  to  whom  the  church  is  to  be  intrusted  is  love  to  Christ.  The  charge 
is  the  committal  of  love,  by  love,  to  love. 

The  first  question  differs  from  the  other  two.  "  Simon,  son  of  John, 
lovest  thou  Me  more  than  these  ?  "  Scholars  tell  us  that  "  so  far  as  grammar 
goes  ",  this  may  mean  either  "  Lovest  thou  Me  more  than  the  other  disciples 
love  Me?"  or,  "Lovest  thou  Me  more  than  all  thy  earthly  possessions,  all  thy 
earthly  loves?"  Grammar  may  not  decide,  but  something  higher  than 
grammar  does.  Can  any  father  imagine  himself  asking  his  child,  "  Do  you 
love  me  more  than  your  brothers  and  sisters  do?"  Would  any  father,  if 
such  a  question  were  put,  desire  a  child  to  say  "yes  "'  ?  Is  a  candidate  for 
the  ministry  ever  asked  whether  he  loves  Christ  more  than  his  brethren  in 
the  ministry  do  ?  If  he  were  to  answer  in  the  affirmative,  he  would  surely 
show  his  unfitness  for  the  office  to  which  he  aspires.  No,  the  question  of 
Christ  is,  "  Do  you  love  Me  so  much  that  you  will  forsake  all  and  follow 
Me"?  This  question  Peter  could  answer  with  all  his  heart,  "  Yea,  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee". 

Three  times  is  this  question  repeated.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  nearly  all 
the  commentators  whom  I  have  consulted  agree  that  Christ  intends  in  this 
way  to  remind  Peter  of  his  threefold  denial.  It  is  presumption  in  me  to 
differ  with  such  a  body  of  learned  men,  yet  I  confess  that  I  can  not  adopt 
their  opinion.  I  can  not  believe  that  this  question,  never  a  proper  one 
except  from  the  lips  of  love,  was  repeated  three  times  by  Christ  in  order  to 
mortify  and  humiliate  Peter  by  reminding  him  of  the  one  awful  sin  of  his 
life.  It  seems  to  me  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of  Christ,  with  the  methods 
of  God,  and  with  all  the  dealings  of  Christ  with  Peter  before  and  after  his 
denial. 

And  I  ask  you,  do  you  believe  it?  If  you  had  been  in  Christ's  place  at 
this  time,  if  you  had  a  friend  to  whom  you  were  about  to  entrust  those  whom 
you  loved  more  than  life ;  if  this  friend  under  the  pressure  of  temptation  in 
the  darkest  hour  the  world  ever  saw,  an  hour  which  above  all  others  was  the 
hour  and  power  of  darkness,  had  denied  that  he  knew  you,  if  your  one 
prayer  for  that  friend  in  view  of  that  hour  had  been  that  his  faith  in  you 
might  not  fail,  and  that  prayer  had  been  answered,  so  that  one  look  from 
you  had  broken  his  heart  and  he  had  hastened  to  your  side,  would  you,  in 
the  presence  of  his  and  your  friends  as  you  were  about  to  confer  on  him 
the  greatest  possible  mark  of  your  love  and  confidence,  would  you  remind 
him  of  his  fault?      You  would  not  allow  him  to  allude  to  it.     You  would 


THE  TWENTY-FJRSr  CHAPTER.  359 

despise  yourself  if  at  such  a  time  you  would  thus  humiliate  him.  All  that  to 
you  is  as  though  it  had  never  been. 

Beloved,  do  you  know  how  God  forgives  ? 

Some  time  ago,  I  had  a  grandchild  spending  a  year  in  my  family.  One 
day,  little  Grace  came  to  the  daughter  w  ho  had  the  special  oversight  of  her, 
with  a  request  for  some  favor.  "No"  was  the  reply,  "you  have  been  a 
naughty  girl  and  you  can  not  have  it". 

She  came  to  her  the  next  week  and  said,  "  Aunt,  I  have  been  a  good 
girl  now.     May  I  not  do  that? " 

"  Yes,  you  may,  but  you  were  not  a  good  girl  last  week  ". 

"  Oh,  aunt  Dora,  you  are  not  a  bit  like  God.  When  God  forgives  any 
one.  He  does  not  keep  flinging  it  up  to  him  afterwards".  Out  of  the 
mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  God  ordains  praise. 

Oh,  beloved,  do  you  know  how  God  forgives  ?  Hear  Him :  "  I  have 
blotted  out  as  a  thick  cloud  thy  transgressions ".  You  have  seen  a  dark 
cloud  on  the  face  of  the  sky  with  its  clearly  defined  outlines  ;  you  turn  away, 
think  of  something  else,  look  back  again  and  the  cloud  has  disappeared. 
There  is  no  scar  on  the  fair  face  of  the  heavens ;  no  man  can  ever  tell  where 
it  has  been  or  trace  its  outline;  it  has  vanished.  You  have  stood  on  the 
deck  of  a  steamer  and  cast  something  into  the  ocean.  The  waters  close 
over  it.  It  has  left  no  seam  on  the  bosom  of  the  waters ;  no  eye  will  ever 
again  see  it.  Listen,  "  Thou  wilt  cast  all  their  sins  into  the  depths  of  the 
sea  ".  You  have  read  that  wonderful  prayer  recorded  in  the  fifty-first  Psalm  ': 
"Wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow".  I  have  ridden  through  the 
forest  on  a  bright  winter  morning  after  a  snowstorm,  and  as  I  admired  the 
beauty  of  the  snow  glittering  in  the  sunlight,  I  have  said,  "  Snow,  thou  art 
dazzlingly  white,  but  I  know  something  whiter ;  my  soul  washed  in  the  blood 
of  Jesus  ". 

Are  you  still  unconvinced  ?  Look  at  the  way  in  which  our  Lord  dealt 
with  Peter  before  and  after  his  denial.  At  the  last  supper,  Christ  says, 
"Simon,  Simon,  Satan  has  desired  to  have  you  that  he  may  sift  you  as 
wheat ;  but  I  have  prayed  for  thee,  that  thy  faith  fail  not  ".  Mark  the  "  you  " 
and  the  "  thee  "  ;  mark  also,  that  He  does  not  pray  that  Peter  may  be  kept 
from  the  commission  of  the  sin,  but  that  after  the  sin  his  faith  may  not  fail. 
What  place  that  sin  had  in  the  great  work  wrought  on  Calvary  we  can  only 
conjecture.  At  any  rate,  the  question  which  God  asks  the  sinner  is  not, 
"  What  have  you  done  .' "  but,  "  What  will  you  now  do  ? "  The  decisive  question 
with  each  one  of  us  will  be,  not  "  Did  you  sin  ? "  but,  "  What  did  you  do  after 
you  sinned?"  Those  of  us  who  have  had  experience  in  dealings  with  our 
brethren  who  look  back  on  a  life  spent  in  the  professed  service  of  God  with 
such  bitter  condemnation  as  is  sometimes  felt,  know  what  it  is  to  pray  and 
exhort  "that  thy  faith  fail  not".  This  made  the  difi'erence  between  Peter 
and  Judas.  Both  had  fearfully  sinned.  Both  repented.  The  repentance  of 
Judas,  tried  by  the  best  human  standards  was  unexceptionable.  He  con- 
fessed to  his  partners  in  sin  the  awful  crime  he  had  committed.  He  would 
not  retain  the  wages  of  his  wrong  doing,  but  flung  the  pieces  of  silver  down 


36o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

on  the  pavement.  He  had  no  faith  that  God  would  forgive  him  and  so  he 
could  not  forgive  himself.     You  know  the  result. 

How  does  Christ  treat  Peter  before  and  after  his  denial  ?  In  Matthew, 
as  we  have  seen,  He  prays  that  his  faith  may  not  fail.  In  Mark,  Christ's  first 
message  to  His  disciples  is,  "  Go  tell  His  disciples  and  Peter  that  He  goeth 
before  you  to  Galilee " ;  in  Luke,  "  The  Lord  has  risen  indeed  and  has 
appeared  unto  Simon  ".  Paul  tells  us  that  "  He  appeared  to  Cephas,  then 
to  the  twelve  ". 

It  is  very  strange  when  one  sees  how  Christ  dealt  with  Peter,  what 
special  affection  He  lavished  upon  him,  with  what  great  interests  He 
entrusted  him,  that  public  speakers  so  often  seem  incapable  of  pronouncing 
his  name  without  prefixing  some  opprobrious  epithet.  He  is  characterized 
as  "  impetuous  Peter  ",  "  fickle  Peter  ",  and  I  know  not  what.  Why  not, 
once  in  a  while,  follow  the  example  of  Him  who  said,  "  Blessed  art  thou, 
Simon  Barjona;  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  this  to  thee,  but  My 
Father,  who  is  in  heaven  ".  I  wish  I  could  once  hear  from  the  pulpit, 
"Blessed  Peter". 

The  reply  of  Peter  to  the  inquiry  of  Christ  is  the  best  possible  ;  "  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  all  things;  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee  ".  Christ's  reply 
is  His  first  charge  to  Peter,  "  Feed  My  lambs  ".  What  words  could  be  more 
welcome  to  Peter's  ears.  Love's  one  wish  is  to  be  asked  to  do  something 
for  the  person  loved.  What  words  could  be  sweeter  than  those  which  Christ 
here  speaks  ?  It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  another  sentence  of  the  same 
length  that  would  convey  more  of  the  heart  of  Christ,  of  His  feeling  toward 
Peter,  of  the  place  which  those  for  whom  He  is  providing  hold  in  His 
affections,  "  My  lambs  ".  I  commend  these  words  as  themes  of  meditation 
to  those  of  you  whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  who  meditate  in 
that  law  day  and  night. 

The  word  "  feed "  in  this  charge  is  by  no  means  to  be  restricted  to 
instruction.  That  the  young  Christian  needs  instruction  goes  without  saying. 
But  the  food  which  a  child  eats  may  be  of  the  best,  and  yet  the  child  become 
a  source  of  grief  and  shame.  The  moral  atmosphere  which  he  breathes,  the 
influences  which  surround  him,  the  example  which  is  continually  before  him, 
these  are  the  things  which  determine  whether  he  is  to  break  his  parents' 
heart  or  be  a  comfort,  an  honor  and  a  blessing.  Character  is  determined 
by  the  family  nurture  and  training.  Wherever  there  is  a  Samuel  ministering 
before  the  Lord,  there  is  always  a  Hannah.  Even  our  Lord  Himself,  if  He 
is  to  come  into  the  world  as  a  child  can  not  come  until  there  has  been  time 
to  produce  a  father,  a  righteous  man,  and  above  all,  a  mother,  blessed  of 
the  Lord,  who  could  sing  to  Him  those  songs  which  have  been  the  canticles 
of  the  church  in  all  ages.  The  character  of  the  church  in  which  the  young 
Christian  is  nurtured  determines  his  character  and  destiny.  If  he  receive 
the  right  influence,  example,  instruction,  he  will  be,  in  his  sphere,  what  the 
church  is,  the  light  of  the  world. 

It  is  very  important  to  remember  that  Peter  is  not  addressed  here  as  an 
individual,  not  as  a  minister,  but  as  the  representative  of  the  church.     This 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST  CHAPTER.  361 

direction  of  our  Lord,  "  Feed  My  lambs  ",  is  given  to  the  church  ;  to  all  in 
her  who  in  their  various  relations  and  with  their  various  gifts  and  graces 
have  to  do  with  shaping  in  any  way  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  young 
members.  These  words  are  as  binding  on  parents,  Sunday  school  teachers, 
experienced  and  influential  members  of  the  church,  on  all  who  can  be  of 
service  to  the  young  Christian. 

"  He  saith  to  him  the  second  time,  Simon,  son  of  John,  lovestthou  Me? 
He  saith  to  Him,  yea,  Lord,  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee.  He  saith  to 
him,  Shepherd  My  sheep  ". 

The  verb  and  the  noun  are  both  changed.  Lambs  have  become  sheep, 
the  persons  for  whom  Christ  is  making  provision  are  no  longer  children 
under  the  constant  care  of  those  who  love  them  and  watch  over  them ;  they 
are  out  in  the  world,  bearing  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  contending 
against  wickedness  in  the  church  and  the  world,  exposed  to  all  the  influences 
which  Satan  can  bring  to  bear  upon  them,  breathing  the  atmosphere  of  a 
world  at  enmity  with  God,  walking  necessarily  m  its  soiling  paths,  needing 
— Oh,  how  much  ! — shepherding.  In  this  Gospel  of  John  you  will  notice  that 
the  favorite  terms  which  Christ  uses  to  express  the  relation  between  Him- 
self and  His  church  are  "  shepherd  "  and  "  sheep  ".  Why  is  this?  A  sheep 
is  notoriously  the  most  irrational,  if  I  may  be  pardoned  for  the  word,  the 
"  dumbest "  of  animals.  All  other  animals  may  be  trained ;  I  have  heard 
even  of  trained  fleas,  but  who  ever  heard  of  a  trained  sheep  ?  If  a  sheep 
wander  from  the  fold,  which  it  is  certain  to  do  if  left  to  itself,  it  does  not 
know  enough  to  return ;  unless  the  shepherd  seek  it,  it  will  perish ;  it  has  no 
means  of  defence;  it  is  the  most  helpless,  as  it  is  the  most  foolish  of 
animals.  The  only  thing  that  can  be  said  of  it,  and,  blessed  be  God,  the 
only  thing  that  need  be  said  of  it  to  make  it  very  dear  to  the  heart  of  Christ 
is,  "They  hear  the  shepherd's  voice  and  they  follow  him". 

The  office  of  shepherd,  outside  the  Bible,  carries  with  it  no  idea  of 
honor  or  comfort.  The  shepherd's  duties  are  unending.  Other  men,  how- 
ever arduous  their  duties,  have  their  hours  of  rest.  The  darkness  summons 
them  to  the  place  to  which,  they  hasten  where  they  sit  in  quiet  and  comfort 
with  those  they  love,  and  then  lie  down  for  the  sleep  so  sweet  to  the  laboring 
man.  But  the  duties  of  the  shepherd  are  unending.  The  darkness  summons 
him  to  more  vigilant  watch  against  the  wild  beast  prowling  around  the 
sheepfold  and  the  robber  watching  his  opportunity  to  steal  and  kill  and 
destroy.  Nay,  the  good  shepherd  must  give  his  life  for  the  sheep.  The 
man  who  will  not  do  this  is  a  hireling  and  not  a  shepherd.  Can  you  wonder 
that  in  this  Gospel  of  love  the  favorite  terms  of  Christ  are  shepherd  and 
sheep  ?  I  can  not  better  describe  the  manner  in  which  the  charge  of  Christ 
is  to  be  obeyed  than  by  repeating  the  words  which  are  constantly  in  the 
mouth  of  Paul  as  he  urges  upon  those  to  whom  he  writes  the  duty  of  comfort- 
ing, (in  the  old  sense  of  the  English  word— strengthening),  encouraging, 
rebuking,  reproving,  exhorting.  What  can  I  do  better  than  to  quote  the 
words  in  which  Paul  enforces  his  idea  of  the  duties  of  a  shepherd  in  his 
solemn  parting  address  to  the  elders  at  Ephesus  ?— "  Take  heed  to  yourselves 


362  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

and  to  all  the  flock  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  appointed  you  overseers,  to 
shepherd  the  church  of  God,  which  He  purchased  with  His  own  blood ;  I 
know  that  after  my  departure  grievous  wolves  will  enter  in  among  you,  not 
sparing  the  flock ;  and  from  among  yourselves  will  men  arise,  speaking 
perverse  things  to  draw  away  the  disciples  after  them.  Wherefore  watch, 
remembering  that  for  the  space  of  three  years,  night  and  day,  I  ceased  not 
to  admonish  every  one  with  tears  ". 

Guarding  the  flock  is  not  the  only,  indeed  not  the  chief,  duty  of  the 
shepherd.  He  must  lead  his  flock  in  green  pastures  that  all  their  spiritual 
wants  be  met.  This,  it  is  needless  to  say,  can  be  done  only  by  Christ  fill- 
ing the  soul.  His  flesh  is  meat,  indeed,  and  His  blood  is  drink,  indeed. 
He  satisfies  all  the  instincts  of  the  renewed  nature. 

The  guide  of  the  flock  must  so  love  Christ  that  those  to  whom  he 
preaches  must  have  Christ  fill  their  hearts.  This  can  be  accomplished  only 
by  a  loving  heart  presenting  the  object  of  love.  Doctrine  and  dogma  and 
theory  and  philosophy  and  argument,  however  correct,  will  not  convince  the 
opponent  or  meet  the  necessities  of  the  inquirer  or  the  indifferent.  Christ 
must  be  preached  in  love,  by  love.  The  one  question  comes  home  again  to 
any  wishing  a  commission  from  Christ,  "  Lovest  thou  Me  ?  " 

This  is  the  reason  why  Christ  asks  this  question  three  times.  It  is  to 
emphasize  the  all-abiding  necessity  of  this  one  qualification  for  Christian 
service,  a  necessity  essential  in  every  form  of  service  to  every  age  and  con- 
dition. Peter  was  grieved  at  the  threefold  repetition  of  the  inquiry,  natur- 
ally grieved,  because  he  did  not  understand  the  great  compass  of  the  words 
addressed  to  him.  He  did  not  dream  that  these  questions  and  charges 
stretched  over  centuries,  that  they  would  be  the  guide  of  the  church  for  all 
coming  time. 

One  class  of  Christ's  sheep  yet  remains.  Our  Lord  has  given  special 
directions  for  the  young  and  for  the  fullgrown ;  there  is  a  class  for  which 
in  our  ordinary  church  life  no  special  provision  is  made.  We  take  care 
for  the  young,  the  various  organizations  formed  for  their  benefit  are  before 
us  continually.  Next  to  them  our  sermons,  our  prayers,  our  efforts  are 
inspired  by  the  men  and  women  in  active  life.  When  a  pastor  is  to  be 
chosen,  I  need  not  repeat  the  inquiry  which  is  sure  to  be  heard.  Yet  the 
Bible  lays  great  stress  on  the  duty  which  is  owed  to  the  aged,  inculcates  for 
them  great  respect,  and  breathes  its  blessing  on  those  who  love  and  care 
for  them.  One  may  be  sure  that  in  our  Lord's  provision  for  His  church  the 
aged  will  not  be  neglected. 

"  He  saith  to  him  the  third  time,  Simon,  son  of  John,  lovest  thou  Me  ? 
Peter  was  grieved  because  He  said  to  him  the  third  time,  Lovest  thou  Me  1 
He  said  to  Him,  Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things,  Thou  knowest  that  I  love 
Thee.     Jesus  saith  to  him.  Feed  My  sheep  ". 

Again  the  verb  and  the  noun  are  changed.  The  verb  is  the  same  that 
is  used  in  connection  with  the  lambs,  for  the  duty  is  very  much  the  same ; 
the  noun,  scholars  tell  us,  is  the  diminutive  of  the  noun  translated  sheep,  in 
v.  16,  a  very  appropriate  designation  for  the  aged  Christian.     For,  in  many 


THE  TWENTY-FIRST  CHAPTER.  363 

respects,  and  those  most  important  ones,  old  a<^e  must,  in  the  vast  majority 
of  cases,  be  a  second  childhood.  No  matter  by  what  loving  and  considerate 
care  surrounded,  no  matter  how  carefully  the  shield  is  thrown  around  the 
aged  Christian,  with  what  tender  anxiety  watched,  the  old  man  can  not  but 
be  conscious  of  the  decay  of  his  physical  strength,  and,  far  worse  than  that, 
of  his  mental  faculties.  No  gratitude  to  his  heavenly  Father  for  a  sweet 
and  peaceful  and  sunny  old  age,  devoid  of  care,  his  wants  all  supplied,  can 
blind  him  to  the  fact  that  his  day  of  active  service  for  his  Lord  and  his 
brethren  is  passed,  that  all  those  with  whom  he  once  was  in  the  thickest  of 
the  fight  have  passed  away,  and  in  the  midst  of  friends  who  could  not  be 
kinder  he  is  alone  in  the  world.  The  cup  is  put  to  his  lips  by  the  hand  he 
loves  most  and  best ;  he  receives  it  with  a  gratitude  for  the  past  and  present 
which  can  not  be  expressed  in  words.  But  all  this,  most  precious  as  it  is, 
can  not  change  the  ingredients  of  the  cup.  And  as,  under  the  pressure  of 
accumulating  years,  possibly  of  sorrow  and  misfortune,  the  thoughts  of  the 
aged  Christian  concentrate  in  their  own  grief,  he  becomes  suspicious,  queru- 
lous, and  makes  exorbitant  demands  on  those  who  have  to  do  with  him. 

But  there  are  others  whose  face,  on  which  divine  grace  has  been  work- 
ing these  many  years,  is  an  inspiration  to  the  minister  as  he  looks  over  his 
congregation,  or  enters  the  room  where  the  aged  saint  is  sitting  with  the 
Bible  before  him.  There  is  no  pleasanter  part  of  a  minister's  duty  than  to 
feed  Christ's  aged  sheep.  He  can  minister  to  their  faith  and  hope,  he  can 
open  to  them  that  word  which  they  love  so  well,  he  can  give  them  the  cup 
of  cold  water  which  is  to  them  so  welcome,  and  he  finds  oftentimes  that  in 
attempting  to  bring  courage  and  strength  he  is  the  one  who  has  been 
encouraged  and  strengthened.  He  came  to  impart  a  blessing ;  he  goes  away 
feeling  that  his  own  soul  has  tasted  of  the  goodness  of  God  in  a  way  entirely 
unanticipated.  In  every  case  love  will  show  mercy  with  cheerfulness,  will 
bear  another's  burdens  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of  Christ.  The  aged  Christian 
is  one  of  Christ's  sheep,  and  the  greater  the  need  the  more  will  love  desire 
to  perform  its  work,  and  the  more  will  that  love  find  in  doing  its  work  its 
prized  reward.     Love  never  faileth. 

How  well  Peter  understood  the  directions  of  Christ,  and  how  faithfully 
he  followed  them  may  be  seen  from  his  two  Epistles.  The  first  is  addressed 
exclusively  to  babes  in  Christ.  They  are  described  as  newborn,  and  are 
bidden  to  desire  the  pure  milk  of  the  word  that  they  may  grow  thereby. 
The  duties  inculcated  in  the  first  Epistle  are  all  passive  virtues — obedience, 
submission,  patience  under  unjust  censure,  subjection  to  rulers,  husbands, 
masters,  to  the  elder,  to  one  another,  and  to  be  clothed  with  humility.  The 
second  Epistle  is  addressed  entirely  to  mature  Christians,  to  those  who 
have  received  the  great  promised  blessings,  who  have  become  partakers  of 
the  divine  nature,  having  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the  world  through 
desire.  They  are  bidden  to  develop  a  full,  round-sided,  symmetrical,  per- 
fect character,  and  to  be  ready  for  an  abundant  entrance  into  the  heavenly 
kingdom.  Those  critics  who  have  doubted  the  authenticity  of  the  second 
Epistle  because  of  the  difference  from  the  first,  will  find  their  difficulties 


364  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

removed  if  they  study  the  two  Epistles  in  the  light  of  Christ's  charge  to 
Peter. 

The  wisdom  which  has  been  manifest  in  the  words  of  Christ  to  Peter 
thus  far,  will  shape  the  manner  of  their  fulfilment.  Peter's  life  will  be  what 
the  life  of  every  faithful  Christian  is,  a  plan  of  God.  The  young  minister 
looks  upon  the  world  and  studies  his  own  field  of  labor.  He  asks,  "  Where 
can  I  best  glorify  God  ?  Shall  I  go  to  an  eastern  or  a  western  field  in  my 
own  country,  or  shall  I  seek  a  foreign  missionary's  work?"  At  first  he 
chooses  apparently  according  to  his  own  convictions  and  wishes.  But  as 
he  grows  in  years,  more  and  more  is  he  conscious  that  his  place  of  labor  is 
not  determined  by  his  own  will.  Another  girds  him  and  carries  where  he 
did  not  wish  to  go.  As  in  our  families  when  our  children  are  learning  to 
walk,  we  care  not  where  they  turn  their  steps.  From  chair  to  chair  we 
watch  their  little  footsteps,  and  are  pleased  with  their  efforts  to  use  their 
new  found  powers,  but  when  they  are  older  they  walk  in  ways  not  of  their 
own  choosing,  often  sorely  against  their  own  inclinations,  but  in  ways  which 
show  the  wisdom  of  their  parents,  ways  which  are  indispensable  to  the 
accomplishment  of  the  purposes  which  the  parent  has  in  view.  And  in  this 
the  Christian  rejoices.  It  is  his  chief  joy  that  in  the  midst  of  all  his  toil 
and  perplexities  and  difficulties  he  can  devoutly  say,  "  I  am  here  not  by  my 
own  choice  or  desire  or  plan ;  I  am  here  because  God  put  me  here,  and 
whatever  is  the  outcome  I  will  be  glad  and  grateful  ". 

As  we  look  at  the  response  of  Christ  to  Peter's  answer  to  the  question, 
"  Lovest  thou  Me  ?  "  can  we  conceive  of  anything  more  blessedly  welcome  ? 
"  Peter,  do  you  love  Me  t  Then  you  may  work  for  Me.  Peter,  do  you  love 
Me  ?  Then  you  may  live  for  Me.  Peter,  do  you  love  Me  ?  Then  you  may 
die  for  Me  ".  Heaven  can  provide  no  honor  more  to  be  coveted  by  the 
Christian  than  these  three  things. 

In  the  great  crises  in  the  foundation  and  spread  of  Christianity,  Peter 
and  John  are  associated.  They  are  sent  together  to  make  preparations  for 
the  last  Passover.  When  Mary  brings  the  news  of  the  deserted  tomb,  they 
run  together  to  the  sepulchre ;  Peter  and  John  go  together  to  the  temple  to 
work  the  first  Christian  miracle ;  both  are  imprisoned  and  brought  before 
the  Sanhedrin  in  consequence ;  both  reply  to  the  accusation ;  when  Samaria 
received  the  word  of  God,  Peter  and  John  are  sent  to  lay  hands  on  the  new 
converts  and  impart  to  them  the  Holy  Spirit.  Most  naturally  Peter,  having 
received  his  commission,  asks  what  part  in  the  development  of  Christianity 
is  John  to  have.  It  would  have  been  most  unbrotherly  in  him  not  to  show 
this  interest  in  his  brother.  Christ's  reply  is  not  a  rebuke.  He  would  not 
chide  Peter  for  a  manifestation  of  a  love  which  He  had  Himself  created. 
The  phrase,  "  What  is  that  to  thee  ? "  and  similar  ones  elsewhere,  convey  no 
censure ;  they  declare  the  clear  distinctness  of  two  spheres  of  office  or  work. 
Christ  says,  "  If  the  manifestation  of  Me  through  John  abides  till  I  come, 
that  does  not  affect  your  work  ". 

In  this  light  read  the  respective  Epistles  of  Peter  and  John.  Compare 
or   contrast  them.     Peter  addresses   strangers  and  sojourners.     There   is 


THE  TWENTY- FIR  ST  CHAPTEK.  365 

nothing  in  his  Epistles  which  can  and  is  not  now  fully  realized.  Almost 
every  sentence  in  John's  Epistles  is  an  echo  of  his  words,  "  Beloved,  now  are 
we  the  children  of  God,  but  it  is  not  yet  manifested  what  we  shall  be.  We 
know  that  if  He  be  manifested,  we  shall  be  like  Him,  because  we  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is". 

"And  there  are  also  many  things  which  Jesus  did ;  the  which  if  they 
should  be  written  every  one  I  suppose  the  world  itself  would  not  contain  the 
books  that  should  be  written  ".  To  which  we  will  all  say,  "Amen  ".  For 
when  one  is  reading  the  Gospel  and  Epistles  of  John  he  seems  to  himself 
like  a  man  in  whose  hands  are  the  lower  links  of  a  chain  of  gold  let  down 
from  the  throne  of  God.  He  values  as  beyond  price  what  he  sees,  but  he  is 
conscious  that  there  is  infinite  wealth  beyond  his  vision.  May  that  untold 
treasure  one  day  be  ours. 


*THE  IMPORT  OF  ST.  JOHN  21:15-17. 

by    rk\'.    ciat^usha.    anderson,   !^.   t.  1").,   i^i^.  !>., 

The  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago,  III. 

It  seems  to  me  to  be  probable  that  the  Gospel  usually  attributed  to  the 
Apostle  John  close  with  the  twentieth  chapter.  Its  concluding  sentences 
are,—"  Many  other  signs  therefore  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  the  disciples, 
which  are  not  written  in  this  book  :  but  these  are  written,  that  ye  may  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  and  that  believing  ye  may  have 
life  in  His  name  ".  Here  the  author  refers  to  certain  events  which  he  has 
not  incorporated  in  his  writing;  calls  what  he  has  written  "this  book", 
and  specifically  states  the  object  which  he  had  in  view  in  writing  it.  If 
there  were  not  another  chapter,  every  intelligent  reader  would  regard 
this  as  a  very  natural  and  fitting  close  to  all  that  goes  before  in  this 
Gospel. 

Still,  what  is  presented  in  the  opening  sentences  of  the  twenty-first 
chapter  is  very  closely  and  vitally  linked  with  the  events  before  related : 
"  After  these  things  Jesus  manifested  Himself  again  to  the  disciples  at  the 
Sea  of  Tiberias ".  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  some  thoughtful 
interpreters  should  conclude,  that,  notwithstanding  the  last  words  of  the 
preceding  chapter  seem  to  note  a  formal  close  of  the  Gospel,  it  did  not  end 
there,  but  instead,  the  author  wrote  right  on  without  lapse  of  time  or  break 
of  thought  to  the  close  of  the  twenty-first  chapter.  Nevertheless,  to  my  own 
mind,  the  most  natural  and  satisfactory'  view  is  that  the  Gospel  really  closes 
with  the  last  words  of  the  twentieth  chapter ;  and  that  after  a  longer  or 
shorter  period  the  author  added  what  we  have  in  the  twenty-first  chapter  as 
a  postscript.  By  the  concatenation  of  events  it  is  vitally  linked  with  the 
preceding,  but  in  form  it  appears  to  be  something  added  to  that  which 
had  been  considered  as  finished.  This  view  satisfactorily  accounts  both 
for  the  juxtaposition  of  thought  and  the  form  of  literar)' expression. 

The  author's  motive  for  writing  this  postscript  seems  to  have  been  twofold. 
First,  his  Gospel  may  have  been  criticised  as  fragmentary  and  incomplete. 
He  therefore  decided  to  add  an  account  of  the  very  important  manifesta- 
tion of  the  risen  Lord  to  His  disciples  at  the  Sea  of  Tiberias.  Having  done 
this,  at  the  close  of  the  postscript  he  formally  defends  the  incompleteness  of 
his  Gospel  by  saying,  "And  there  are  also  many  other  things  which  Jesus 
did,  the  which,  if  they  should  be  written  every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the 
world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that  should  be  written".  But,  in 
the  second  place,  from  what  transpired  at  this  third  manifestation  of  Christ 


*  Delivered  at  the  Eighth  Conference,  held  at  All  Saints  Memorial  Church,  May  ii,  1904. 

366 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST.  JOHN  21  :  15-17.  367 

to  His  disciples,  a  report  sprang  up  and  had  gone  abroad  among  believers 
that  Jesus  had  declared  that  the  author  of  this  Gospel  should  not  die.  It 
was  a  false  report  and  on  that  ground  alone,  an  honest  man  would  be 
strongly  moved  to  contradict  it ;  but  the  report  put  the  writer  mto  wrong 
relations  with  his  fellow  disciples.  As  the  brethren  of  Joseph  regarded 
him  as  a  favorite  of  their  Father,  so,  if  this  false  rumor  should  remain 
uncontradicted,  the  disciples  might  regard  the  writer  of  this  Gospel  as  one 
on  whom  Jesus  had  conferred  special  honors.  If  the  report  should  not  be 
corrected,  it  might  awaken  jealousies,  jeopardize  the  success  of  the  apostle's 
labor,  and  stand  in  the  way  of  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
So,  near  the  close  of  his  postscript  he  takes  pains  explicitly  and  positively 
to  contradict  it. 

If  it  should  be  asked  why  the  author  did  not  in  his  postscript  simply 
deny  the  false  rumor  concerning  himself,  without  treating  at  considerable 
length  the  third  manifestation  of  Jesus  to  His  disciples  after  His  resurrec- 
tion, the  obvious  answer  is,  that  he  felt  it  to  be  important  to  place  fully 
before  the  disciples  all  the  circumstances  out  of  which  such  a  rumor  arose. 
Thus  all  could  see  how  naturally  it  sprung  up,  and  that  it  was  simply  a 
perversion  of  a  very  important  ethical  lesson.  This  lesson  we  shall  consider 
later  in  its  proper  relation. 

That  the  body  of  the  Gospel  and  this  postscript  were  written  by  the 
same  hand  scarcely  admits  of  a  doubt.  Both  were  evidently  penned  by  an 
eye-witness.  We  grant  that  there  may  be  some  incidents  delineated  in  this 
Gospel  of  which  the  writer  may  not  have  been  personally  cognizant  and 
which  may  have-  been  reported  to  him  by  Jesus  Himself ;  but  nearly  the 
whole  of  this  Gospel  is  manifestly  the  testimony  of  what  the  writer  saw  and 
heard.  Take  for  instance  the  record  of  the  first  miracle  at  Cana  of  Galilee, 
where  as  invited  guests  at  a  wedding  were  Jesus,  His  mother  and  His 
disciples.  During  the  progress  of  the  feast  the  wine  is  exhausted.  On 
account  of  it  the  family  is  greatly  embarrassed,  and  Jesus'  mother,  sharing 
in  their  anxiety,  hastens  to  her  Son  and  delicately  suggests  to  Him  that  He 
should  work  a  miracle  to  meet  the  exigency.  He  gently  rebukes  her.  She, 
however,  nothing  daunted,  said  to  the  servants,  "  Whatsoever  He  saith  unto 
you,  do  it".  In  due  time  He  said  to  them,  "  Fill  with  water  the  six  stone 
waterpots",  and  they  filled  them  up  to  the  brim.  Then  in  the  presence  of 
its  Lord  the  water  blushes  into  wine;  whereupon  He  commands  them  to 
draw  it  out  and  bear  it  to  the  ruler  of  the  feast.  He  in  astonishment  com- 
ments on  the  superior  excellence  of  the  wine.  If  any  one  should  now  tell  a 
story  of  a  wedding,  artlessly  painting  the  scene  in  all  of  its  interesting 
details,  the  hearer  would  instinctively  exclaim,  "  Why,  you  were  there  then  !  "; 
and  the  hearer  would  think  for  the  nonce  that  he  was  there  too.  What  may 
be  said  of  this,  we  are  also  constrained  to  say  of  most  of  the  scenes  depicted 
in  this  Gospel.  Jesus  at  Jacob's  well,  in  the  household  at  Bethany,  at  the 
gftave  of  Lazarus,  in  the  upper  room  when  He  said  to  Thomas,  "Reach 
hither  thy  finger  and  see  My  hands  ",  and  many  other  notable  incidents 
are   so   narrated   that   ordinary,  intelligent  readers   never   for   a   moment 


368  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

doubt  that  we   have   here  the  words   of  one  who  saw   and  heard  what 
he   reports. 

If  we  turn  to  this  postscript  we  find  the  same  subtle,  convincing  evidence 
that  the  writer  of  it  declared  what  was  presented  to  his  eye  and  ear.  There 
were  together  seven  disciples;  three  of  them  are  named  by  the  writer  and 
partially  described ;  two  are  not  named  but  are  so  described  that  we  know 
who  they  were ;  two  others  are  not  identified.  Then  we  have  the  declara- 
tion by  the  foremost  disciple  that  he  is  going  a  fishing,  and  the  quick  response 
of  the  rest  that  they  would  go  with  him.  Then  follows  their  fruitless  toiling 
during  the  night,  the  Stranger  on  the  shore  just  at  the  grey  dawn,  His 
friendly  salutation,  and  His  direction  as  to  handling  the  net  which  brought 
instant  success,  the  swim  of  Peter  to  the  shore,  the  burning  coals,  the 
bread,  the  fish,  the  breakfast,  the  colloquy  that  followed, — all  so  unmistakably 
suggest  the  words  of  an  eye  and  ear  witness,  that  a  fool  could  not  err  in 
reference  to  it.  If  an  eye-witness  wrote  this  Gospel  and  this  postscript  of 
it,  they  were  not  written  by  some  elder,  whose  name  was  John,  who  lived 
about  the  middle  of  the  second  century. 

Again,  the  style  of  both  the  Gospel  and  the  postscript  shows  that  the 
same  hand  that  wrote  the  one  wrote  also  the  other.  The  style  of  this  writer 
is  distinctive,  unique;  it  is  distinctive  in  its  severe  simplicity;  in  its  clear  and 
subtle  distinctions ;  in  its  suggestions  of  vast  unexplored  regions  of  thought. 
The  critics  say  that  he  did  not  write  good  Greek,  classical  Greek ;  grant  it, 
but  he  so  wrote  that  he  has  impressed  and  stirred  the  profoundest  intellects 
of  all  the  ages  of  the  Christian  church,  and  has  also  been  read  with  special 
delight  and  profit  by  the  lowly  of  all  lands.  And  this  simple,  subtle,  sug- 
gestive style  characterizes  both  the  Gospel  and  its  postscript. 

Moreover,  this  eye-witness  with  his  unmatched  style  sets  forth  in  both 
the  Gospel  and  the  postscript  the  same  great  thought.  While  fully  and 
unhesitatingly  presenting  to  us  the  humanity  of  Christ,  he  wrote  that  he 
might  set  forth  with  special  emphasis  His  divine  nature.  His  deity.  So  the 
first  sentence  of  his  Gospel  is:  "In  the  beginning",  in  eternity,  "was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God".  "And  the 
Word  became  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we  beheld  His  glory,  glory  as 
of  the  only  begotten  [begotten  as  no  other  being  ever  was]  from  the  Father), 
full  of  grace  and  truth  ".  In  His  conflict  with  the  Pharisees  He  announces 
Himself  as  that  bread  that  came  down  from  heaven,  of  which  if  a  man  eat 
he  shall  never  hunger ;  He  claims  that  He  shall  raise  the  dead  and  judge 
the  world,  and  calls  upon  all  men  to  honor  Him  even  as  they  honor  the 
Father;  He  declares  that  He  existed  before  Abraham,  that  he  that  hath 
seen  Him  hath  seen  the  Father,  that  all  that  the  Father  possesses  He 
possesses, — "All  things  that  are  Mine  are  Thine,  and  Thine  are  Mine  ";  He 
prays  to  the  Father,  "Glorify  Thou  Me  with  Thine  own  self  with  the  glory 
which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the  world  was  ".  And  just  at  the  close  of  the 
Gospel,  Thomas,  delivered  from  all  doubt  of  Christ's  resurrection,  said  unto 
Him,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God  ".  Then  the  writer  of  the  Gospel  adds  :  "  These 
things  are  written,  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God". 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST.  JOHN  21  :  15-17.  369 

The  great  truth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  divine  Lord,  is  also 
the  central,  unifying  thought  of  the  postscript.  It  is  the  risen  Lord  that 
manifests  Himself  on  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Tiberias,  provides  food  for 
His  hungry  followers,  controls  the  fish  of  the  sea,  presents  Himself  as  the 
supreme  object  of  tljeir  love,  commands  the  foremost  disciple  to  follow 
Him,  unveils  to  him  the  manner  of  His  death,  and  speaks  of  His  own  future 
coming. 

Who  is  the  eye-witness  that  wrote  both  this  Gospel  and  postscript 
alike  in  style,  dominated  by  the  same  great  vitalizing  thought  of  a  divine 
Saviour?  The  writer  himself  replies:  "lam  he  who  leaned  back  on  His 
breast  (on  Jesus'  breast)  at  the  supper,  and  said,  '  Lord,  who  is  he  that 
betrayeth  Thee  ? '  I  wrote  these  things,  and  know  that  what  I  have  written 
is  true  ".  And  after  all  the  hair-splitting  criticism  of  the  past  and  of  today, 
on  good  and  sufficient  evidence  we  hold  fast  to  the  position  that  John  the 
apostle  wrote  both  the  Gospel  and  the  postscript. 

But  a  more  important  matter  demands  our  attention.  What  is  the  real 
significance  of  this  postscript?  What  is  its  central,  unifying  idea?  Is  it 
not  Peter's  confession  of  supreme  love  to  the  divine  Christ  and  his  public 
restoration  to  the  office  that  the  Master  had  called  him  to  fill,  and  from 
which,  by  his  denial  he  had  fallen  ?  So  far  as  we  are  able  let  us  grasp  the 
meaning  of  this  great  passage  of  Scripture. 

Since  His  resurrection,  Jesus  had  already  appeared  twice  to  the  eleven  ; 
once  to  ten  of  them  on  the  evening  of  His  resurrection  day,  in  the  upper 
room  at  Jerusalem,  Thomas  being  absent ;  one  week  later  in  the  same  room 
to  them  all,  Thomas  being  present,  when  with  all  the  ardor  of  his  nature  he 
said  to  Christ,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God  ".  Now  for  many  days  Jesus  left 
these  disciples  to  their  own  reflections.  At  last  time  began  to  hang  heavily 
on  mind  and  heart ;  for  their  own  happiness  they  needed  employment. 
Most  of  them  also  were  poor.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  their  purses  needed 
replenishing.  In  these  circumstances  it  was  very  natural  for  them  to  turn 
to  that  calling  with  which  they  were  most  familiar.  And  just  as  we  should 
reasonably  expect,  the  energetic,  impulsive  Peter  was  the  first  to  say  to  his 
fellows,  "  I  go  a  fishing  ".  It  needed  only  this  declaration  from  him  to 
elicit  their  prompt  response,  "We  also  come  with  thee  ".  They  got  into  a 
boat  in  the  evening  and  pushed  out  a  little  way  from  shore,  and  began  their 
toil  for  the  night.  There  were  only  seven  of  them,  Peter,  Thomas,  Nathaniel, 
James  and  John,  and  two  others  whose  names  are  not  mentioned.  As  it  is 
sometimes  with  fishermen,  their  toil  during  the  live-long  night  was  bootless. 
Just  at  the  break  of  day  they  saw,  as  they  supposed,  a  stranger  on  the  shore. 
But  this  stranger  evidently  had  a  lively  interest  in  them,  for  His  voice  came 
sweetly  across  the  waters,  "  Children,  have  ye  aught  to  eat  ?  "  They  respect- 
fully answered  the  questioner,  "  No  ".  Did  not  the  address,  "  children  "  make 
them  think  that  He  was  not  wholly  a  stranger?  He  cried  to  them,  "  Cast  the 
net  on  the  right  side  of  the  boat,  and  ye  shall  find  ".  There  was  something 
commanding  and  compelling  in  the  words  that  He  uttered,  for  they  at  once 
do  His  bidding.     Immediately  the  net  is  filled  with  fish.     It  is  so  heavy  that 


370  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

they  are  not  able  to  draw  it  up  into  the  boat ;  they  can  only  drag  it  along  in 
the  sea.  What  passed  through  John's  mind  we  do  not  certainly  know. 
Perhaps  he  remembered  a  similar  draught  of  fishes  from  that  same 
sea  soon  after  they  began  to  follow  the  Lord.  Perhaps  he  thought, 
there  stands  the  one  who  is  Lord  of  "  whatsoever  passeth  through  the  paths 
of  the  seas  ".  But  whatever  was  the  process  of  his  thought,  as  soon  as  the 
net  was  filled  with  fishes,  John  said  to  Peter,  "  It  is  the  Lord !  "  When 
Peter  heard  that,  he  girt  his  coat  about  him,  plunged  into  the  sea  and  swam 
straight  to  the  shore.  He  must  be  the  first  to  greet  his  Lord  !  Peter's 
feeling  was  vastly  different  from  what  it  was  when,  near  the  beginning  of 
Christ's  ministry,  obeying  the  word  of  Jesus  he  let  down  his  net  and  enclosed 
a  multitude  of  fishes.  At  that  time  he  fell  down  at  Jesus'  knees,  saying, 
'*  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord  "  ;  but  Peter  had  grown 
spiritually  since  that  day.  Now,  instead  of  praying  the  Lord  to  depart  from 
him  he  swims  to  the  shore  that  he  may  at  once  be  with  Him.  What  passed 
between  them  we  do  not  know.  The  rest  of  the  disciples  came  in  the  boat 
dragging  the  net  with  fishes.  Stepping  upon  the  shore  an  unexpected  sight 
greeted  their  eyes.  There  were  at  their  feet  glowing  coals,  toasting  bread 
and  broiling  fish.  Their  Lord  had  not  been  unmindful  of  their  hunger,  and 
had  bountifully  provided  for  their  wants.  But  since  it  is  His  will  that  men 
should  ever  co-operate  with  Him  in  meeting  their  necessities.  He  said, 
"  Bring  of  the  fish  which  ye  have  now  taken  ".  It  is  now  the  ardent,  zealous 
Peter,  who,  before  any  of  his  fellow  disciples,  steps  onto  the  boat,  grasps 
the  net  and  drags  it  to  the  shore.  How  natural  the  action  that  follows  I 
They  all  gather  about  the  full  but  unrent  net  and  count  the  fishes  taken  out, 
perhaps  more  than  once,  and  find  that  there  are  one  hundred,  fifty  and 
three.  Some  of  them  are  now  probably  dressed  and  broiled  that  the  repast 
may  be  abundant  for  these  hungry  fishermen.  And  when  all  is  ready,  the 
Lord,  the  provider  of  the  table,  says  to  them,  "  Come  and  break  your  fast  ", 
just  our  familiar,  "  Come  to  breakfast  ". 

But  thus  far  in  the  passage  there  is  no  hint  that  the  disciples  talked 
with  Jesus.  There  is  a  strong  indication  that  they  did  not.  They  seemed 
to  have  been  filled  with  reverential  awe.  They  knew  that  it  was  the  Lord  ; 
but  as  gratifying  as  it  would  have  been  to  have  their  positive  conviction 
confirmed  by  a  declaration  from  His  lips,  no  one  of  them  ventured  to  ask, 
"  Who  art  Thou  ?  "  And  at  the  moment  when  the  breakfast  was  fully  pre- 
pared, Jesus  seemed  to  have  been  standing  a  little  aloof  from  them,  for  He 
'■^Cometh  and  taketh  the  bread  and  giveth  them,  and  the  fish  likewise  ".  He 
who  provided  the  feast  is  both  the  host  and  the  servant  of  His  hungry 
brethren. 

We  come  now  to  the  great  central  lesson  of  the  Scripture  in  hand.  The 
preceding  lessons  are  of  high  import.  The  waiting  of  these  disciples  after 
their  risen  Lord  showed  Himself  to  them  the  second  time  must  have  seemed 
to  them  long  and  weary.  It  must  have  been  a  severe  trial  to  their  faith. 
But  His  third  appearance  to  them  showed  them  that  their  Lord  had  not 
forgotten  nor  abandoned  them.     Ever  watchful  over  them,  and  still  training 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST  JOHN  21:1517.  371 

them  for  their  future  labor,  He  once  more  taught  them  by  this  draught  of 
fishes  that  their  future  success  in  catching  men,  lifting  them  out  of  this 
world  and  bringing  them  into  I  lis  kingdom,  depended  on  prompt  obedience 
to  His  word;  not  by  their  toil  alone,  however  persistent,  but  by  His  accom- 
panying and  energizing  word  should  they  realize  their  mission.  That 
draught  of  fishes  was  putting  into  concrete  form  the  old,  but  ever  vital 
prophetic  message,  "Not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  My  spirit  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts  ".  He  had  also  taught  them  by  the  breakfast  which  He  had 
prepared  for  them  on  the  shore  that  it  was  His  purpose  to  care  even  for  the 
bodily  wants  of  His  toiling  disciples.  They  were  not  to  expect  luxury,  but 
such  wholesome  food  as  would  fit  them  for  the  most  efficient  labor  in  saving 
souls.  But  all  this  simply  led  up  to  a  still  more  important  lesson  for  them 
all,  and  especially  for  Peter,  to  whom  it  was  particularly  directed. 

The  breakfast  was  over.  The  appetites  of  all  were  satisfied.  The 
divine  host,  the  risen  Lord,  turned  His  eyes  full  upon  Peter.  It  may  have 
reminded  that  disciple  of  the  look  which  the  suffering  Saviour  gave  him  in 
the  palace  of  Caiaphas,  which  melted  him  to  repentance;  and  as  the  risen 
Lord  looked  way  down  into  the  depths  of  Peter's  heart,  the  searching  words 
were  poured  into  his  ears,  "  Simon,  son  of  John  (R.  V.),  lovest  thou  Me  more 
than  these? "  This  disciple  had  received  from  his  Lord  the  name  of  Peter, 
but  in  this  interview  Jesus  discards  it  and  goes  back  to  the  old  name  of  His 
disciple.  In  view  of  what  he  did  at  his  Lord's  trial  before  Caiaphas,  to  have 
called  him  Peter,  Rock,  would  have  been  little  short  of  cutting,  bitter  sar- 
casm.    This,  in  probing  Peter's  conscience,  the  Lord  avoids. 

Also  in  this  first  question  Jesus  used  the  phrase,  "  More  than  these  ". 
The  interrogatory  was,  "Do  you  love  Me  more  genuinely,  more  truly  than 
do  your  fellow  disciples  ?  Is  your  love  superior  to  that  of  these  brethren 
with  whom  you  have  just  partaken  of  this  frugal  meal  ?"  This  carried  Peter 
back  a  few  days  to  the  time  of  his  self-confidence  and  self-assurance,  to  the 
hour  when  his  Lord  said,  "All  ye  shall  be  offended  in  Me  this  night",  and 
he  in  his  overweening  trust  in  himself  had  contradicted  his  Master  and 
declared,  "If  all  shall  be  offended  in  Thee",  if  all  shall  stumble  into  sin 
because  of  Thee,  on  account  of  what  Thou  art  or  dost,  "  I  will  never  be 
offended",  I  will  never  stumble  into  sin,  thus  putting  himself  above  his 
fellows.  And  when  in  spite  of  his  lofty  and  loud  profession  of  fidelity  Jesus 
said  to  him,  "  This  night,  before  the  cock  crow,  thou  shalt  deny  Me  thrice  ", 
he  vehemently  affirmed,  "  Even  if  I  must  die  with  Thee,  yet  will  I  not 
deny  Thee".  But  while  his  boastful  words  still  rung  in  the  ears  of  his 
fellow  disciples,  he,  on  account  of  what  his  Lord  was  passing  through, 
stumbled  more  deeply  into  sin  than  any  of  them,  cowardly  denying  his  Lord, 
even  with  cursing  and  swearing.  Of  his  assumed  superiority  over  his  fellows, 
of  his  boastfulness  and  shameful  fall,  those  words,  "more  than  these", 
forcefully  reminded  him.  But  when  he  answered  the  heart-searching  question, 
he  made  no  allusion  to  others,  but  simply  afiirmed  his  love  to  his  Lord, 
justifying  the  sincerity  of  his  profession  by  appealing  to  the  Lord's  knowl- 
edge of  his  heart:     "Yea,  Lord,  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee".     Boast- 


372  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

fulness  over  others  is  gone ;  trust  in  the  omniscient  Lord  has  taken  the  place 
of  trust  in  self.  On  the  basis  of  this  profession  of  his  love,  the  Master  bade 
him,  "  Feed  My  lambs  ". 

But  the  Lord  said  the  second  time,  "  Simon,  son  of  John,  lovest  thou 
Me  ?  "  and  received  the  same  answer  as  before ;  and  on  the  basis  of  Peter's 
twice-professed  love,  He  bade  him,  "Tend  My  sheep". 

But  the  third  time  the  same  question  came  from  the  lips  of  the  risen 
Lord,  and  "Peter  was  grieved  because  He  said  unto  him  the  third  time, 
lovest  thou  Me?  "     Why  was  he  grieved  ? 

Ordinarily  such  repetition  of  a  question  would  suggest  to  the  one  inter- 
rogated that  the  questioner  doubted  his  truthfulness.  But  Peter's  twice- 
repeated  "Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee"  seems  to  me  to  preclude  the 
entertainment  of  any  such  notion  by  him.  And  Jesus'  commands,  "  Feed  My 
lambs, — tend  My  sheep  ",  apparently  show  that  Jesus  thoroughly  believed 
that  Peter  was  honest  and  that  his  love  was  genuine.  So  Peter  could  not 
have  been  grieved  by  entertaining  the  notion  that  the  Lord  doubted  him. 

His  grief  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  third  repetition  of  the  question 
brought  back  vividly  and  powerfully  the  whole  scene  of  his  cowardly  denial. 
Before  his  fall  Jesus  said  to  him,  "Thou  shalt  deny  Me  thrice  " — three  times. 
When  he  had  entered  into  the  court  of  the  palace  of  Caiaphas,  the  maid 
that  kept  the  door  accused  him  of  being  a  disciple  of  the  Nazarene,  and  he 
denied  it.  He  now  retreated  from  the  fire  in  the  open  court,  where  he  was 
warming  himself,  into  the  shadow  of  the  arch  that  led  from  the  street  to  the 
court ;  but  very  soon  another  maid  saw  him  and  said  to  the  crowd  in  the 
court,  "  This  man  also  was  with  Jesus  the  Nazarene",  and  he  denied  it  with 
an  oath.  He  again  joins  those  who  stood  by  the  fire,  and  they  at  once 
question  him,  "  Art  thou  also  one  of  His  disciples  ?  "  He  denied,  and  said, 
"  I  am  not".  Twice  now,  before  all  those  in  the  open  court  he  has  denied 
his  Lord,  confirming  his  last  denial  with  a  solemn  oath. 

About  an  hour  after,  they  in  the  open  court  declared  to  Peter,  "  Of  a 
truth  thou  art  also  one  of  them,  for  thy  speech  betrayeth  thee",  thou  art  a 
Galilean.  And  one  of  them  directly  appealed  to  him,  "  Did  I  not  see  thee 
in  the  garden  with  Him  ?"  Peter  now  lost  his  balance,  began  to  curse  and 
swear,  and  declare  between  his  oaths  that  he  did  not  know  Jesus.  This  is 
the  third  denial.  Now  the  Lord  turned  and  looked  upon  Peter.  Then  the 
crowing  of  the  cock  brought  to  the  mind  of  the  faithless  disciple  Jesus' 
words,  "  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  that  this  night,  before  the  cock  crow,  thou 
shalt  deny  Me  thrice  "^//;r<?^  times.  Keenly  conscious  of  his  threefold 
denial  Peter  wept,  and  went  out  of  the  court  and  found  some  secret  place 
and  there  wept  bitterly.  That  three-fold  denial  prophesied  by  Christ, 
enacted  by  Peter,  was  branded  upon  the  very  substance  of  his  soul.  He 
could  never  forget  it.  Tradition  says  that  ever  after  there  was  a  tear  in  his 
eye.  Jesus  by  the  words,  "  more  than  these  ",  had  already  carried  him  back 
to  the  hour  of  his  boastful  self-confidence,  and  the  whole  sad  history  that 
followed  was  vividly  before  him.  He  heard  the  Master  again,  "  Thou  shalt 
deny  Me  three  times", — his  three  awful  denials  sounded  through  the  halls 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST.  JOHN  21  ;  15  17.  373 

of  his  memory ;  nothing  so  aroused  and  touched  him  to  the  quick  as  that 
three  times.  This  the  Master  knew ;  and  that  he  might  probe  His  disciple's 
conscience  to  the  core,  three  times  He  asked,  "Simon,  son  of  John,  lovest 
thou  Me  ? "  But  when  He  asked  it  the  third  time,  Peter's  soul  was  pierced 
with  the  sharpest  grief,  and  he  answered,  very  likely  with  tears  and  sobs, 
'*  Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things ;  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee  ".  "  Jesus 
said  unto  him.  Feed  My  sheep". 

What  was  the  Lord's  object  in  all  this?  Surely  He  would  not  have 
caused  His  disciple  to  feel  any  unnecessary  pang.  But  Peter  had  greatly 
sinned.  The  fact  that  all  things  considered  he  was  the  foremost  disciple 
made  his  oflence  all  the  greater.  So  the  Lord  determined  thoroughly  to 
probe  his  conscience ;  that  through  and  through  he  might  be  contrite  and 
might  realize  in  the  very  depths  of  his  consciousness  that  he  had  repented 
of  his  great  sin.  And  it  was  important  also  that  he  should  make  this  three- 
fold confession  of  his  love  for  Jesus  before  his  fellow  disciples,  that  they  too 
might  be  fully  and  impressively  assured  of  the  depth  and  genuineness  of  his 
compunction. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  he  had  been  openly  chosen  by  Christ  to  do  a 
great  and  specific  work,  and  had  been  put  by  Him  into  the  most  exalted 
office  of  the  infant  church.  On  the  one  hand  he  was  called  to  be  a  fisher  of 
men — that  was  his  distinctive  task;  but  on  the  other  hand,  he  with  others 
had  been  separated  from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  followers  of  Christ  and 
made  an  apostle, — that  was  his  high  station. 

Moreover,  with  two  others  he  had  been  distinguished  even  from  the 
twelve  and  drawn  into  closer  personal  relations  with  his  Lord  than  they. 
On  account  of  this  intimate  relationship  he  went  with  Jesus  up  into  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration.  In  an  ever  memorable  interview  he  had  been 
foremost  in  confessing  that  Jesus  was  "the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God  ",  and  in  turn  had  received  the  special  blessing  of  his  Lord.  When 
Jesus  felt  the  sorest  need  of  human  sympathy,  Peter  with  James  and  John 
had  gone  with  Him  into  the  shadow  and  gloom  of  Gethsemane.  But  by 
his  open  and  thrice-repeated  denial  of  the  Lord  who  had  so  highly  honored 
him,  he  had  miserably  fallen  from  his  high  vocation  and  office  and  brought 
discredit  upon  his  great  confession.  It  was  therefore  necessary  that  his 
restoration  to  his  work  and  office  should  be,  if  possible,  as  public  and  con- 
spicuous as  had  been  his  denial  and  fall.  He  himself  needed  to  know  that 
his  Lord  had  not  only  forgiven  his  great  sin,  but  had  recalled  him  to  his 
work  and  had  put  him  once  more  into  his  former  position.  If  in  the  future 
he  was  to  work  effectively  for  the  salvation  of  men,  there  must  not  be  so  much 
as  one  faint,  lingering  doubt  of  his  complete  pardon  by  his  Lord  and  full 
restoration  to  his  work  and  apostleship.  This  was  necessary,  not  only  for 
him,  but  also  for  his  fellow  apostles.  To  insure  their  faith  in  Peter  and  in  his 
leadership,  they  too  must  know  beyond  a  peradventure  that  the  past  had  been 
blotted  out  by  Christ,  and  that  he  who  under  stress  and  in  fear  had  denied 
his  Lord,  had  once  more  His  full  confidence,  and  was  re-commissioned  by 
Him  to  do  the  work  and  to  fill  the  office  to  which  he  was  originally  called. 


374  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

So  the  Master,  in  the  presence  of  six  of  Peter's  apostolic  associates, 
bids  him  three  times,  answering  to  his  threefold  denial  and  threefold  con- 
fession of  love,  to  care  for  and  nourish  the  lambs  and  sheep  of  his  flock. 
If,  in  the  future,  some  one  objecting  should  say,  "  Why  is  this  apostle,  who 
thrice  denied  his  Lord,  so  prominent  and  aggressive  in  service? " — six  men, 
associates  with  him  in  labor,  could  bear  witness  that  the  risen  Lord,  in 
their  presence  and  hearing,  three  times  commanded  him  to  do  this  work ; 
He  solemnly  re-commissioned  him  thrice  over  to  care  for  those  who  believe 
in  Him  and  follow  Him ;  over  against  each  shameful  denial  He  placed  His 
renewed  commission,  "  Feed  My  lambs  ;  Feed  My  sheep  ",  And  if,  there- 
after, the  conscience  of  Peter  at  times  should  accuse  him  afresh  for  his 
recreant  acts  and  words  in  the  palace  of  Caiaphas — as  it  doubtless  did — he 
would  hear  over  against  his  repeated  denial  the  Master's  repeated  re-com- 
mission, and  be  reassured  and  comforted  and  enabled  to  go  on  in  peace 
with  his  great  work. 

While  his  work  was  07ie,  it  was  two-sided.  He  was  under  Christ  to  bring 
men  out  of  the  world  into  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  according  to  the  terms  of 
his  original  commission  he  was  to  catch  men — and  then  nourish  them  and 
build  them  up  "  into  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ ". 
Peter  certainly  did  the  first ;  how  successfully  the  results  of  his  preaching  at 
Jerusalem  on  the  day  of  Pentacost,  and  subsequently  in  the  house  of  Cor- 
nelius in  Caesarea  testify.  But  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  when  the  risen  Lord, 
at  the  Sea  of  Tiberias,  re-commissioned  Peter  it  was  the  second  phase 
of  his  work  that  he  specially  emphasized,  the  nourishing,  the  caring  for  the 
sheep.  Jesus  had  intimated  to  Peter,  even  before  his  denial,  that  this  was 
to  be  his  pre-eminent  task.  Predicting  his  temporary  downfall.  He  said — 
oh,  with  what  tender  solicitude — "  But  I  made  supplication  for  thee,  that 
thy  faith  fail  not ;  and  do  thou  when  once  thou  hast  turned  again,  establish 
thy  brethren  ".  The  Epistles  of  Peter  bear  witness  that  the  apostle  gave 
himself  with  great  assiduity  to  the  work  of  feeding  "the  elect  who  are 
sojourners  of  the  Dispersion  in  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Asia  and 
Bithynia  "-  And  in  his  first  Epistle  the  once  self-confident  apostle  strength- 
ened the  brethren  not  only  with  the  great  central  truths  of  the  Gospel,  but 
also  out  of  the  depths  of  his  own  experience  as  he  wrote :  "  Yea,  all  of  you 
gird  yourselves  with  humility,  to  serve  one  another ;  for  God  resisteth  the 
proud  " — that  is  the  cry  from  Peter's  soul,  when  he  went  out  and  wept  bit- 
terly— "  but  giveth  grace  to  the  humble  " — an  echo  of  what  was  granted  to 
contrite  humble  Peter  when  his  risen  Lord,  forgiving  and  forgetting  His 
great  sin,  said  to  him,  "  Feed  My  lambs  ". 

And  we  must  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  Lord  in  this  personal  colloquy 
with  Peter  made  love,  just  as  Paul  did,  the  supreme  grace.  He  did  not  ask 
his  penitent  apostle  whether  he  believed  in  Him,  or  had  hope  of  eternal 
life,  but  whether  he  loved  Him,  and  on  the  emphatic  confession  of  that 
grace  He  publicly  restored  him  to  his  work  and  office.  The  Lord  demanded 
positive,  unmistakable  love  because  that  grace  pre-eminently  determines 
character.     What  a  man  loves  reveals  unerringly  what  he  is. 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST  JOHN  21  :  15-17.  '  375 

Moreover,  the  object  towards  which  we  must  exercise  supreme  love  is 
here  clearly  presented  to  us.  "  Lovest  thou  Me  T'  Jesus  did  not  ask, 
"  Dost  thou  love  God  ? "  —  although  He  had  taught  with  iteration  and 
emphasis  that  the  first  great  commandment  is,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind" 
(Matt.  22  :37).  Did  He  then  in  this  colloquy  with  Peter  repudiate  what  He 
had  before  taught  .^  Nay,  verily !  He  who  talked  with  penitent  Simon, 
"in  the  beginning" — in  eternity — "was  with  God,  and  was  God  ".  It  was 
He  concerning  whom  Jehovah  said  :  "  Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship 
Him  ".  He  had  become  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us.  He  had  conquered 
death  on  our  behalf.  Just  because  He  was  God,  He  claimed  for  Himself 
the  absolute  love  of  Peter.  "Lovest  thouJ/<??"  Before  His  crucifixion 
He  said  to  Philip:  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father";  and 
with  His  reiterated  question  to  Simon  before  us,  without  any  fear  of  making 
a  mistake,  we  can  add :  "  He  that  loves  the  risen  Lord  loves  the  Father  ". 
That  the  Father  is  well  pleased  when  we  render  supreme  love  to  Christ, 
Jesus  declares  in  these  words :  "  He  that  loveth  Me  shall  be  loved  of  My 
Father"  (John  14:21). 

But  in  the  report  of  Christ's  conversation  with  penitent  Peter  on  the 
shore  of  Tiberias,  do  the  words  used  by  John  to  designate  the  act  of  loving 
throw  any  special  light  on  this  great  transaction?  In  the  first  and  second 
questions  we  have  agapao ;  this  word  signifies  loving  with  esteem  ;  it  usually 
involves  the  notion  of  admiration  of  righteous  character,  and  the  purpose  of 
bestowing  kindness  on  the  one  esteemed  and  admired.  Its  Latin  synonym  is 
diligo.  It  is  a  word  that  pre-eminently  expresses  the  Christian  conception 
of  loving. 

In  the  third  question  we  f[x\(\  phileo.  This  signifies  love  which  expresses 
itself  through  feeling,  emotion  ;  it  conveys  the  notion  of  instinctive,  warm, 
personal  affection.  This  verb  is  found  in  every  one  of  Peter's  replies; 
probably  expressing  his  warm  personal  affection  for  Jesus.  Its  Latin  syno- 
nym is  atno.  Some  interpreters  think  that  Jesus'  use  of  phileo  instead  of 
agapao^  in  the  third  question,  was  what  caused  the  grief  of  Peter ;  they  sug- 
gest that  the  word  made  Peter  think  that  the  Lord  called  in  question  his 
personal  attachment  to  Him,  and  this  broke  the  heart  of  the  ardent  disciple. 

But  all  such  interpretations,  it  seems  to  me,  inject  into  the  text  what  it 
does  not  contain.  We  grant  freely  that  there  is  a  distinction  between  the 
two  verbs,  agapao  and  phileo ;  but  the  demarcation  between  them  is  not 
rigid  and  absolute.  The  classical  Greek  writer  expressed  by  phileo  not  only 
warm  personal  love,  but  also  love  of  esteem  for  character.  But,  confining 
ourselves  simply  to  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is  clear  that  in 
them  these  two  words  were  sometimes  used  interchangeably.  To  be  sure, 
agapao  is  used  in  a  very  large  majority  of  the  passages  where  the  act  of  love 
is  set  forth,  but  not  in  all.  And  it  is  not  always  used  to  express  esteem  for 
righteousness  or  righteous  character,  but  sometimes  to  express  the  love  of 
self  and  pelf.  For  example,  the  Pharisees  loved  {agapao)  the  chief  seats  in 
the  synagogue  (Luke   11:42),  and   Balaam,  the   son   of   Beor,  who   loved 


376  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

{agapad)  the  hire  of  wrong-doing.  And  while  agapao  is  more  frequently 
employed  by  New  Testament  writers  ^zxiphileo^  the  latter  is  often  used  by 
them  to  set  forth  love  not  only  in  the  lower  but  also  in  the  higher  relations, 
and  they  employed  both  alike  to  express  love  on  the  same  plane  and  for  the 
same  object.  For  example,  Jesus  says  of  the  Pharisees  (Matt.  23  :6)  they 
love  (philed)  the  chief  places  at  feasts  and  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogue ; 
whereas  Luke  reports  (Luke  11  :43)  Jesus  as  saying  to  the  Pharisees,  "Ye 
love  (agapad)  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogue  ".  In  these  passages  the 
two  verbs  are  used  interchangeably ;  the  one  regarded  as  fit  as  the  other  to 
express  love  for  that  which  ministers  to  personal  vanity. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  agapao  is  the  word  used  to  express  love  in  all 
the  higher  and  more  sacred  relations  of  life,  and  we  grant  that  in  the  New 
Testament  it  is  by  far  the  most  frequently  employed  to  set  forth  love  in  such 
relations,  but  by  no  means  exclusively.  For  example,  while  Paul  (Eph. 
5  :  25)  in  one  Epistle  exhorts  husbands  to  love  {agapao)  their  wives,  in 
another  Epistle  (Titus  2:4)  he  directs  that  the  young  women  be  trained  to 
love  (phileo)  their  husbands  and  their  children.  Phileo  is  also  used  in  the 
same  Epistle  to  express  brotherly  love  (Titus  3:15):  "  Salute  them  that  love 
(phileo)  us  in  faith ".  And  in  i  Pet.  3  : 8  we  read :  "  Loving  (phileo)  as 
brethren  "  ;  the  Greek  word  is  a  compound,  "  brethren-lovers  ". 

Phileo  is  also  used  in  the  New  Testament  to  express  the  love  that  men 
should  have  to  the  Lord.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians  (i  Cor.  16:22): 
"  If  any  man  loveth  (phileo)  not  the  Lord,  let  him  be  anathema  ".  And  it 
is  also  employed  to  set  forth  Christ's  love  both  to  His  special  friends  and  to 
His  children.  Of  His  love  to  His  special  friends  we  have  two  examples,  in 
both  of  which  the  two  verbs  are  used  interchangeably  (John  11:5):  "  Now 
Jesus  loved  (agapao)  Martha,  and  her  sister,  and  Lazarus  " ;  but  as  Jesus 
went  weeping  to  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  the  Jews  who  were  looking  on  said, 
"  Behold  how  He  loved  (phileo)  him  ".  But,  if  possible,  we  have  a  more 
striking  example  of  the  interchangeable  use  of  these  verbs  in  the  charac- 
terization of  Jesus's  special  love  for  John.  In  John  13  :  23  we  read  :  "  There 
was  at  the  table  reclining  in  Jesus'  bosom  one  of  His  disciples  whom  Jesus 
loved  "  (agapao)  ;  but  on  the  morning  of  the  resurrection,  we  are  told  by  the 
same  writer  (20  :  2),  that  Mary  Magdalene  "  cometh  to  Simon  Peter  and  to 
the  other  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  "  (phileo). 

But  in  the  Revelation  the  love  of  the  exalted  and  glorified  Jesus  for  His 
followers  is  expressed  by  phileo  (Rev.  3  :  19),  "As  many  as  I  love  (phileo)  I 
rebuke  and  chasten  ".  But  our  argument  is  cumulative,  since,  in  the  New 
Testament  the  love  of  God  the  Father  for  His  children  is  expressed  by 
phileo.  Jesus,  in  His  great  farewell  discourse,  said  to  His  disciples  (John 
16:27):  "For  the  Father  Himself  loveth  you  (phileo),  because  ye  have 
loved  (phileo)  Me  ".  Here  we  have  both  the  love  of  God  to  His  children 
and  their  love  to  His  eternal  Son  expressed  by  phileo.  But  phileo  was 
regarded  by  John  as  a  fit  vehicle  for  the  expression  of  the  love  of  God  the 
Father  for  His  only-begotten  Son  (John  5  :  20).  In  reporting  Jesus'  words 
he  says,  "  For  the  Father  loveth  (phileo)  the  Son  ". 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST.  JOHN  21:15-17.  377 

We  see,  then,  that  phileo  is  employed  by  New  Testament  writers,  and 
especially  by  the  writer  of  tiie  Fourth  Gospel,  to  express  love  even  in  all  the 
highest  and  most  sacred  relations  of  men  to  one  another  and  to  God,  and 
of  God  to  men,  and  even  of  the  Father  to  the  Son.  Moreover,  we  have 
seen  how  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  at  times,  uses  the  two  verbs, 
agapao  and  p/ii/eo,  interchangeably.  If  he  did  this  in  the  body  of  his  Gos- 
pel, in  all  probability  he  did  it  also  in  the  postscript  of  his  Gospel.  And 
such  marked  distinctions  between  these  verbs  as  the  critics  have  made,  dis- 
tinctions of  which  John  evidently  never  dreamed,  loads  a  simple  and  impor- 
tant narrative  with  far-fetched  philological  speculations  which  obscure  its 
real  meaning,  which  shroud  its  light  in  mist.  John  probably  instinctively 
used  both  of  these  verbs,  which  are  substantially  synonymous,  just  as  any 
writer  would  do  now,  simply  to  give  variety  to  his  diction  and  avoid  monot- 
ony of  style. 

But  still  another  consideration,  it  seems  to  us,  ought  to  check  the 
speculations  of  commentators  on  the  difference  in  the  meaning  of  these  two 
verbs.  Whether  Jesus  in  His  colloquy  with  Peter  used  one  word  to  express 
the  act  of  loving  or  two  words  we  cannot  tell. 

If  He  used  two,  whether  there  was  a  shade  of  difference  between  them 
we  cannot  now  ascertain.  We  have  no  conclusive  evidence  that  He  spoke 
Greek.  That  He  possibly  might  have  done  so  we  must  of  course  grant, 
since  both  John  and  Peter,  a  few  years  later,  wrote  in  that  tongue.  But 
scholars  generally  hold  that  Jesus  spoke  x\ramaic.  In  that  dialect  of  the 
Hebrew  He  and  Peter  probably  spoke  with  each  other  on  the  shore  of 
Tiberias,  That  John  has  faithfully  reported  the  conversation  I,  for  one, 
have  not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  But  if  in  the  colloquy  Jesus  used  two 
words  to  express  the  act  of  loving,  nobody  now  knows  what  they  were,  so 
no  one  can  now  intelligently  speculate  about  them.  While  the  two  verbs 
found  in  John's  report,  we  have  already  shown,  were  used  interchangeably 
by  him  in  his  Gospel  and  in  all  probability  in  the  twenty-first  chapter, 
which  we  have  treated  as  a  postscript  to  his  Gospel. 

It  still  remains  for  us  to  inquire  what  is  meant  by  the  love  on  which 
Jesus  so  strenuously  insisted.  Not,  certainly,  simply  emotion  excited  by 
some  object  and  lavished  upon  it.  That  emotion  attends  love  is  true,  but  it 
is  not  the  love  itself.  In  the  last  analysis  love  is  pre-eminently  preference. 
One  who  loves  prefers  some  object  above  all  others,  and  that  preference 
bends  all  the  powers  of  the  one  preferring  to  the  service  of  the  object 
supremely  preferred.  Such  a  preference,  leading  all  the  activities  of  the 
soul  in  its  train  is  always  attended  with  pleasurable  sensibility,  often  with 
powerful  emotion  ;  but  to  mistake  the  sensibility  or  the  emotion  for  the  love, 
for  supreme  preference,  frequently  leads  to  mischief.  Now,  this  is  the  pur- 
port of  Jesus'  question  to  Peter.  "  Simon,  son  of  John,  lovest  thou  Me,  pre- 
ferest  thou  Me  above  all  others  ?  So  preferest  thou  Me  that  every  energy 
of  thy  being  flows  full-tide  into  glad  service  to  Me  ?  " 

This  question  leads  us  finally  to  ask.  What  are  the  fruits  of  such  love.^ 
Regarding  Christ  as  the  one  supremely  preferred,  such  preference,  such 


378  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

love,  naturally  expresses  itself  in  obedience  and  service.  And  here  we  dis- 
cern another  ligament  which  binds  this  postscript  with  the  body  of  the 
Gospel.  Christ  in  His  last  great  discourse  to  His  disciples  before  His 
agony  in  the  garden  said :  "  If  ye  love  Me  ye  will  keep  My  command- 
ments ".  He  here  calls  on  Peter  to  illustrate  this  general  principle  in  his 
life.  By  His  probing  questions  He  makes  His  disciple  more  profoundly 
conscious  of  love  to  Him  ;  He  still  further  deepens  Peter's  consciousness  of 
love  by  leading  him  ardently  to  profess  it  again  and  again,  and  at  each  pro- 
fession of  it  He  calls  upon  him  to  manifest  it  in  obedience  and  loving 
service.  "  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee ",  says  the  penitent  Peter ; 
"  Then  ",  says  the  risen  Lord,  "  show  your  love  by  tenderly  caring  for  My 
sheep  ". 

But  such  love  not  only  expresses  itself  in  assiduous  toil  for  others,  but 
it  enables  those  who  exercise  it  to  endure  without  murmur  the  severest 
hardships  and  sharpest  trials  in  the  service  of  their  divine  Lord.  Jesus 
had  no  sooner  said  in  response  to  Simon's  third  confession  of  his  love, 
"Feed  My  sheep",  than,  without  a  break,  He  went  straight  on  to  say  to 
him  :  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  when  thou  wast  young  thou  girdedst 
thyself  and  walkedst  whither  thou  wouldest ;  but  when  thou  shalt  be  old,  thou 
shalt  stretch  forth  thy  hands  and  another  shall  gird  thee  and  carry  thee 
whither  thou  wouldest  not.  But  this  He  spake,  signifying  by  what  manner 
of  death  he  should  glorify  God.  And  when  He  had  spoken  this.  He  saith 
unto  him,  Follow  Me  ". 

The  writer  has  not  left  us  in  doubt  as  to  the  main  import  of  these 
words ;  they  were  a  prophesy  that  Peter,  after  he  had  grown  gray  in  his 
Master's  service,  should  suffer  a  violent  death.  "  Thou  shalt  stretch  forth 
thy  hands  and  another  shall  gird  thee  ",  may  be  a  distinctive  prophecy  that 
he  should  be  taken  into  custody  by  the  officers  of  the  government,  who 
would  bind  his  hands  with  cords,  just  as  they  bound  Jesus'  hands  when  they 
apprehended  Him  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  and  carry  him  whither  he 
would  not — take  him  away  to  his  trial  in  the  court — or  the  words  may  refer 
to  death  by  crucifixion.  When  one  was  crucified  he  was  not  always  nailed 
to  a  cross,  but  sometimes  lashed  to  it  by  cords.  The  cross  was  laid  on  the 
ground,  the  victim  was  bound  to  it;  it  was  then  lifted  with  the  victim  upon 
it  to  an  upright  position  and  made  fast  in  the  earth.  The  few  words  of 
Jesus  may  have  been  an  outline  picture  of  this.  But  if  reasonable  objection 
may  be  made  to  any  specific  interpretation  of  the  words,  John,  by  his  com- 
ment has  made  it  clear  that  they  refer  to  Simon's  martyrdom.  And  that 
reveals  their  vital  connection  with  what  goes  immediately  before.  For 
when  Jesus  had  predicted  Simon's  violent  death  He  said  to  him,  "  Follow 
Me".  "  Your  love  must  be  such  that  it  will  lead  you  to  follow  Me,  what- 
ever awaits  you.  You  may  have  manifold  and  bitter  trials  ;  a  violent  death 
when  you  are  an  old  man  will  be  your  lot,  nevertheless,  follow  me ;  if  that 
love  that  you  have  thrice  so  emphatically  confessed  is  genuine,  you  will  not 
only  gladly  feed  My  sheep,  but  for  My  sake  you  will  die  without  a  murmur, 
lashed  to  a  cross  ". 


THE  IMPORT  OF  ST  JOHN  21:15-17.  379 

"  But  last  of  all,  if  your  love  is  genuine  it  will  enable  you  to  be  stead- 
fast in  My  service  irrespective  of  what  I  do  to  others  ".  Peter  followed 
his  risen  Lord  as  He  walked  along  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Tiberias, 
and  looking  back  he  saw  John  a  little  behind  them,  also  following. 
Now  as  the  Lord  had  lifted  the  curtain  and  revealed  to  Peter  something  of 
his  future,  his  curiosity  was  excited  to  know  what  was  to  be  John's  career 
and  fate;  so  he  asked:  "  Lord,  and  what  shall  this  man  do?"  Jesus  saith 
unto  him,  "  If  I  will  that  he  tarry  till  I  come  what  is  that  to  thee  ?"  Then 
again  Jesus  said  to  him,  "  Follow  thou  Me  ".  "  No  matter  how  I  may  order 
the  life  of  John,  his  career  and  fate  do  not  change  your  duty.  If  I  will  that 
he  tarry  on  the  earth  until  I  come  again,  that  will  not  absolve  you  from  My 
service.  If  you  indeed  love  Me  you  will  follow  Me,  however  much  the 
condition  of  others  may  differ  from  your  own  ". 

This  chapter,  then,  so  full  of  varied  and  interesting  incident  is  instinct 
with  one  great  thought,  the  genuine  love  of  the  disciple  for  his  Master. 
All  the  events  in  the  first  of  the  chapter  lead  directly  up  to  the  question 
which  the  risen  Lord  asks  Simon.  It  is  an  inquiry  as  to  the  fact  of  his  love 
to  Him.  His  love  for  Jesus  is  thrice  confessed.  Its  fruit  is  obedient  serv- 
ice, no  matter  how  bitter  the  trials  such  service  may  involve,  or  how  the 
Lord  may  see  fit  to  make  our  condition  to  differ  from  that  of  others. 

We  have  considered  not  merely  an  interesting  fact  of  Gospel  history, 
but  a  truth  which  "takes  hold  on  our  business  and  bosoms".  Simon's 
risen  Lord  is  ours  also.  He  asks  us,  as  we  read  this  Scripture,  the  same 
question  that  He  asked  him,  "James,  son  of  Charles,  lovest  thou  Me? 
Yea,  Lord,  Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee.  Then  nurture  those  children 
that  I  have  given  thee  'in  the  chastening  and  admonition  of  the  Lord'". 
"  Theodore,  son  of  Christopher,  lovest  thou  Me  ?  Yea,  Lord,  thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee.  Then  use  honestly  your  talent  for  making  money,  and 
gather  wealth  not  for  selfish  ends,  but  for  the  betterment  of  your  fellow 
men  ".  "  Jacob,  son  of  Robert,  lovest  thou  Me  ?  Yea,  Lord,  Thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee.  Then  go  out  into  the  streets  and  lanes  of  your  city,  find 
those  who  do  not  know  Me  and  tell  them  of  My  love  and  My  salvation  ". 
"  Martha,  daughter  of  Alfred,  lovest  thou  Me  ?  Yea,  Lord,  Thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee.  Then,  make  home  for  your  children  the  most  attractive 
place  on  earth,  and  so  far  as  possible  minister  to  the  sick  and  cheer  the  dis- 
consolate in  your  own  neighborhood,  remembering  that  inasmuch  as  ye  do 
it  unto  even  the  least  of  these  ye  do  it  unto  Me  ".  Both  our  usefulness  and 
our  destiny  are  determined  by  the  answer  that  we  can  truthfully  give  to  our 
risen  Lord's  soul-testing  question,  "  Lovest  thou  Me  ?  " 


*  THE  TEACHING  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

BY    REV.    FRANK    Iv.    SANDERS,    PH.    D.,    r>.    D., 

Professor  of  Biblical   History  and  Archeology  in  Yale  Divinity  School, 

New  Haven,  Conn. 

A  theme  of  great  interest,  but  not  as  novel  as  many  imagine.  More 
than  200  years  ago  our  Congregational  churches  of  New  England  called  to 
their  service  both  a  pastor  and  a  teacher.  It  is  forced  upon  our  careful 
attention  by  the  far-reaching  changes  of  the  past  decade  or  two  in  methods 
and  principles  of  instruction.  While  the  phrases  are  overworked,  there  is  a 
new  psychology  and  a  new  pedagogy  to  be  reckoned  with.  Each  bases  its 
advocated  principles  upon  accurate  observation  of  data  taken  from  life. 
They  are  in  a  true  sense  practical.  Behind  each  of  them  is  the  historical 
foundation  laid  today  for  every  subject  of  human  knowledge  and,  in  partic- 
ular, for  the  study  of  the  Bible. 

Two  principles  find  broad  application  in  the  consideration  of  the  theme 
of  the  teaching  function  of  the  church.  The  first  is  that  no  hard  and  fast 
line  can  be  drawn  between  religious  and  secular  education.  All  instruc- 
tion should  have  a  broad  religious  setting.  No  pupil  should  be  able 
to  distinguish  the  two  kinds  of  education  by  any  marked  difference  of  atti- 
tude or  method.  The  second  is  that  education  is,  to  borrow  Professor 
Coe's  expressive  definition,  "  training  for  self-expression  ".  Knowing  is 
not  the  only  fundamental  quality  of  mind,  and  knowledge  is  not  the  only 
end  of  education.  The  older  education  gave  intellectual  training  a  dispro- 
portionate place ;  it  cultivated  the  memory  and  logical  powers.  Hence  a 
man  might  become  well-educated  religiously  without  necessarily  becoming 
religious.  We  recognize  today  the  importance  of  the  will.  Education  is 
the  harmonious  development  of  the  personality. 

The  chief  responsibility  for  religious  education  today  rests  with  the 
church.  Neither  the  home  nor  the  public  school  achieves  the  needed 
results.  It  is  a  pastor's  problem,  since  he  is  the  one  person  who  stands  in 
a  working  relationship  to  every  contributing  factor.  Such  a  pastor  must  of 
necessity  be  a  trained  pastor,  acquainted  with  actual  needs,  capable  of 
critical  leadership.  It  is  a  problem  never  actually  settled,  yet  nearer  a 
working  solution  today  than  ever  before. 

The  available  avenues  of  religious  impression,  instruction  and  training 
are  the  home,  the  church  and  the  school. 

The  problem  of  religious  education  in  the  home  is  a  serious  one.  With 
unequalled  advantage  for  fostering  a  religious  consciousness,  the  natural 


*  Abstract   of  address  delivered    at    the    Seventh    Conference,    held    at    the    Central    Congregational 
Church,  April  13,  1904. 

380 


THE  TEACHING  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHLKCH.       3.S1 

opportunities  of  home  life  are  being  yielded  or  ignored.  The  grace  at 
meals,  family  prayers,  the  familiar  discussion  of  religious  themes,  the  com- 
mon study  of  a  weekly  lesson  in  the  Bible — all  are  passing,  not  so  much 
because  of  indifference  or  timidity  as  because  of  a  subtle  change  in  the 
attitude  of  people  to  religious  obligations. 

The  problem  of  religious  education  in  the  church  is  more  complicated. 
All  ages,  all  methods,  all  objects  must  be  kept  in  mind :  ideals,  knowledge, 
habits,  artistic  impressions.  The  crying  problem  of  today  is  that  of  the 
Sunday  School :  its  scientific  gradation,  the  distinction  of  working  depart- 
ments, the  adoption  of  effective  courses  of  study,  the  training  of  teachers. 
Attention  is  now  being  called  to  the  need  of  a  trained  superintendent,  of 
the  increase  of  the  time  allotted  to  the  Sunday  School,  of  the  variation  of 
instruction,  of  the  adaptation  of  courses  of  study,  of  the  broadening  of  the 
curriculum,  so  that  it  may  include,  beside  the  Bible,  an  opportunity  in 
special  classes  to  receive  instruction  upon  missions,  church  polity,  church 
history,  the  distinguished  men  and  methods  of  the  church,  a  religious  inter- 
pretation of  national  history  and  of  the  life  of  today. 

The  problem  of  religious  education  in  the  school  is  insistent.  In  the 
college  it  is  in  process  of  solution.  In  the  private  school  a  start  has  been 
made.  In  public  schools  the  principles  which  must  govern  the  solution  of 
the  problem  are  still  in  debate.  Denominationalism  and  theology  may  well 
be  barred  from  our  public  schools,  but  why  religion  }  To  refuse  the  teacher 
the  opportunity  of  giving  simple  expression  to  the  common  religious  needs 
of  mankind  is  deliberately  to  secularize  the  growing  mind.  A  simple  open- 
ing service  and  the  freedom  to  interpret  religiously  the  workaday  world  is 
sufficient  and  unobjectionable. 

The  Religious  Education  Association  has  already  exhibited  such 
strength  that  there  are  signs  of  real  promise  for  the  future.  An  organized 
attempt  to  study  these  problems  will  lead  to  their  thorough  discussion  and 
rational  solution. 


*THE   METHOD   OF    JESUS   WITH   INDIVIDUALS. 

(St.  John  3: 1-16;  4:5-26.) 
by    re^v^.   w.   dougi^^^s   ivia.ckknzie,   d.   d., 

President  of  Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn. 

None  of  the  Gospels  is  more  carefully  planned  than  the  Fourth.  And 
in  nothing  is  this  care  more  apparent  than  in  the  many  contrasts  which  it 
contains  between  persons  and  ideas  of  different  classes.  We  are  now  con- 
cerned with  one  of  these  most  striking  comparisons  between  the  treatment 
of  Nicodemus,  the  Pharisee,  and  of  the  sinful  woman  of  Samaria  by  one  and 
the  same  Master  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  For  nothing  seems  more  clear 
than  that  in  the  arrangement  of  the  material  it  is  intended  to  bring  these 
persons  into  contrast  and  to  display  the  power  of  Jesus  over  both. 

Nicodemus  has  had  the  most  scholarly  training  of  his  day  and  his 
country.  He  has  lived  the  self-respecting  life  of  integrity  which  men  would 
expect  from  one  who  made  his  professions  and  occupied  his  position. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suspect  that  he  belonged  to  the  class  of  Pharisees 
who  were  hypocrite^,  but,  rather  to  the  class  of  Pharisees  who  were  sincere 
Puritans,  and  very  earnest,  religious  men.  He  belonged  to  the  best  kind  of 
learned  teacher  and  authoritative  ruler  in  the  morally  purest  society  of  the 
ancient  world;  and  he  came  to  Jesus,  not,  perhaps,  without  a  touch  of 
condescension  in  his  tone,  and  yet  not  without  an  undercurrent  of  very 
earnest  inquiry,  which  we  feel  as  the  conversation  proceeds. 

In  the  other  conversation,  we  have  one  who  belongs  to  the  lowest 
classes,  considered,  not  in  relation  to  possessions,  but  to  character;  one 
who  has  been  accustomed  for  years  to  meet  the  contemptuous  gaze  of  her 
fellow  citizens,  and  who  has  learned  with  a  brazen  face  to  outface  it  all ; 
one  whose  name  probably  was  notorious  in  that  little  city  for  the  kind  of  life 
she  had  been  living,  utterly  careless  of  the  ordinary  standards  of  self  respect 
and  honor  amongst  her  fellow  citizens.  She,  to  whom  religion  must  seem 
to  be  a  very  strange  thing,  and  the  claims  of  the  higher  life  a  matter  for 
mockery  and  raillery,  rather  than  for  appreciation  and  interest,  she  also 
comes  in  contact  with  Jesus. 

How  does  Jesus  become  the  teacher  of  two  people  who  stand  at  the 
opposite  extremes  of  moral  self-respect,  of  intellectual  education,  of  social 
position  and  influence.''  Can  He,  does  He  become  the  real  teacher,  the 
inspirer  of  two  hearts  so  entirely  diverse,  the  one  in  almost  every  particular 
the  contradiction  of  the  other?  Is  He  able  to  adapt  the  eternal  truth  so 
that  it  shall  take  hold  of  the  cold  dignity  of  Nicodemus,  and  take  hold  also 


*  Delivered  at  the  Sixth  Conference,  held  at  the  Trinity  Union  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  March  9, 
1904. 

382 


THE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  WITH  INDIVIDUALS.       383 

of  the  passionate  abandonment  of  the  woman  of  Samaria  ?  Can  He  so 
reveal  God  to  each  of  these,  that  the  same  God  shall  make  them  other  than 
they  have  been?  Where  shall  He  insert  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  into  the 
linked  armor  that  encases  the  self-righteous  heart  of  Nicodemus,  and  how 
shall  He  touch  the  open,  festering  sore  of  the  heart  of  the  woman  of  Sama- 
ria? How  shall  one  man  become  the  divine  Teacher  and  Saviour  of  Nico- 
demus and  the  divine  Teacher  and  Saviour  of  that  woman  ?  Is  it  possible? 
Is  it  conceivable?  The  disciples  gradually  learned  from  this  Teacher  that 
it  is  possible,  and  John  has  here  presented  to  us  the  way  in  which  this 
Teacher,  this  Master,  this  Saviour  can  let  in  light  into  all  hearts,  can  bring 
people  from  all  quarters  of  the  moral  universe  to  the  feet  of  the  one  God, 
and  can  flash  everlasting  truth  alike  upon  the  ignorant  and  dark  mind  of 
the  debased,  and  upon  the  dark  mind,  also,  of  the  most  thoroughly  trained 
intellectualist  of  His  generation.     How  is  it  that  He  does  this? 

I,  Observe  that  when  Jesus  meets  with  Nicodemus,  He  meets  with 
one  who  has  come  with  inquiry  concerning  Him  upon  his  lips.  The  first 
words  which  Nicodemus  says  to  Him  are  "Rabbi,  we  know  that  Thou  art 
a  Teacher  come  from  God,  for  no  man  can  do  these  signs  that  Thou  doest, 
except  God  be  with  him  ".  He  belongs  to  those  who  have  been  watching 
Jesus  as  He  lived  and  worked  there  in  Jerusalem.  From  that  class,  as  we 
are  told  in  the  immediately  preceding  verse,  "  Many  believed  on  His  name, 
beholding  the  signs  which  He  did ".  He  belongs  to  those  who  watched 
Jesus,  alike,  when  He  healed  the  sick  and  when  He  appeared,  solitary,  in 
the  grandeur  of  moral  indignation,  to  cleanse  the  temple  courts  of  all  their 
irreligious  and  immoral  foulness,  and  saw  that  He  proved  Himself  master  of 
every  moral  situation.  And  these  men,  who  are  all  trained  to  watch  the  signs 
of  the  times  and  who  are  quick  to  interpret  every  deed  that  He  does  and 
every  word  that  He  speaks,  as  a  religious  claim,  these  men  say  : — "  Who  is 
this  and  what  can  He  tell  us  ?  We  listened  some  time  ago  to  John  the  Bap- 
tist, and  he  told  us  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand.  Here  is  One  who 
comes  after  him  and  carries  on  his  work,  not  now  down  at  the  Jordan,  but 
up  here  at  the  very  heart  of  Israel's  life.  He  does  not  dwell  there,  dipping 
men  in  the  water.  He  comes  here  to  wash  out  the  temple  courts  with  His 
own  Spirit.  He  comes  here  to  bless  people  in  the  midst  of  their  sorrows,  in 
the  midst  of  their  sins,  in  the  midst  of  all  their  daily  life.  Who  is  this  and 
what  has  He  to  say  about  the  Kingdom  of  God?  When  is  it  coming?  Is 
it  any  nearer,  now  that  He  speaks  instead  of  John  the  Baptist?  Has  it 
come  closer  to  Jerusalem,  closer  to  us  all?  Shall  our  eyes  see  it?  Shall 
our  feet  bear  us  into  its  glorious  reality  ?  Shall  we  behold  the  kingdom  and 
be  members  of  it;  we,  who  live  and  breathe  now,  members  of  the  eternal 
Kingdom  of  Jehovah  ?  " 

These  are  the  questions  that  are  in  the  heart  of  Nicodemus,  ready  to 
pour  forth  from  his  lips,  one  after  another,  in  rapid,  eager  haste.  And 
Jesus,  piercing  at  once  to  the  heart  of  the  situation,  answers  him  and  says,— 
"Verily,  verily,  the  most  real  thing  and  the  most  essential  thing  I  have  to 
say  to  you,  Nicodemus,  the  starting  point  of  all,  the  thing  you  must  know 


384  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

before  I  can  explain  anything  else,  the  thing  you  must  understand  and  lay 
ho  d  of  before  I  can  describe  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  answer  any  ques- 
tions about  it,  the  first  essential  thing  to  know  is,  that,  except  a  man,  except 
you,  Nicodemus,  be  born  again,  you  can  not  see  the  Kingdom  of  God  ".  It 
was  an  astounding  blow  to  give  Nicodemus,  a  blow  that  staggered  him  ;  and 
he  talked  like  a  little  child  and  stumbled  about  the  meaning  of  the  words 
that  Jesus  was  using, — "  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
Kingdom  of  God". 

"  He  can  not  see  it ".  The  Kingdom  of  God  may  be  all  around  you  and 
you  are  blind  to  it.  The  Kingdom  of  God  might  fill  the  atmosphere  with  its 
glory  and  your  eyes  remain  untouched  by  one  of  its  rays.  The  Kingdom  of 
God  might  be  sending  its  thrilling  fires  into  hearts  all  round  you,  organizing 
its  membership,  gathering  to  itself  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  and  you, 
you  might  be  deaf  to  all  the  praises  that  were  being  shouted  towards  its 
throne,  and  your  heart  be  impervious  to  all  the  influences  going  out  from  its 
center  of  power.  You  might  be  living  in  the  very  kingdom  of  heaven  itself, 
in  earthly  presence,  and  be  as  far  from  its  actual  presence  as  the  farthest 
star  from  the  earth  we  walk  on.  That  was  the  doctrine  taught  by  Jesus. 
That  was  an  astounding  blow  to  that  man's  religious  consciousness  at  that 
point  in  his  career ;  but  it  was  the  very  thing  he  needed.  No  farther  step 
was  possible  in  understanding  Jesus,  in  approaching  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
until  Nicodemus's  own  heart  should  deal  frankly,  deal  earnestly,  deal  suc- 
cessfully with  that  first  condition  which  Jesus  lays  down,  "  Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  can  not  see  the  Kingdom  of  God", — far  less,  "enter  into  it  ", 
as  He  says  a  few  verses  farther  on. 

That  is  the  first  thing  Jesus  teaches  him.  Then,  according  to  John, 
He  goes  on  to  teach  him  concerning  Himself.  It  is  very  hard  to  tell  in 
John's  Gospel  exactly  where  history  ends  and  where  comment  begins,  and 
whether  the  words  he  writes  down  are  to  be  understood  as  words  attributed 
by  him  to  Jesus,  or  words  that  he  draws  out  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  explain- 
ing and  developing  it.  This  passage  (from  v.  14  to  v.  21)  illustrates  the 
difficulty.  These  words,  I  believe  were  intended  to  give  us  the  substance 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  which  is  this:  That  Jesus,  Himself,  is  the  one 
person  with  whom  Nicodemus  must  deal,  if  he  would  have  anything  to  do 
with  that  kingdom.  He,  in  fact,  tells  that  man,  who  is  one  of  the  most 
powerful  men  of  his  day  in  the  whole  country,  tells  him  frankly,  "  Unless  you 
come  into  right  relations  with  Me,  the  door  is  shut,  the  kingdom  is  unattain- 
able, invisible.  You  can  not  enter  into  it,  you  can  not  see  it,  until  you  have 
dealings  with  the  King,  who  speaks  to  you". 

These,  then,  are  the  two  main  points  that  Jesus  Christ  compels  Nico- 
demus to  consider.  The  one  concerns  himself  inwardly.  The  other 
concerns  Another  and  his  relation  to  that  Other.  The  one  is  that  a  change 
must  come  upon  his  own  inner  nature,  and  that  change  must  be  wrought  by 
God.  The  other  is  that  he  must  come  into  a  changed  relation  with  God 
through  that  Person,  outside  and  above  himself,  even  Jesus  Christ. 

Now,  there  are  those,  of  course,  in  every  age,  who  feel,  as  Nicodemus 


THE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  WITH  INDIVIDUALS.       385 

must  have  felt  at  first,— as  the  young  ruler  felt  at  first,  when  the  same 
demand  was  made  upon  him, — that  it  is  an  extraordinary  and  an  inadmiss- 
ible assertion  that  every  man,  in  order  to  get  into  heaven,  to  get  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  must  undergo  a  change  so  momentous,  that  it  can  only  be 
described  by  Jesus  Himself,  as  "  Being  born  again  ".  Time  after  time  in 
the  history,— not  of  the  world,  for  the  self-satisfied,  irreligious  worldling 
always  denies  that,— but  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  church  itself,  move- 
ments have  come  which  have  had  the  denial  of  this  for  their  mainspring.  I 
do  not  know  anything  more  interesting  or  more  entertaining  here  than 
certain  chapters  of  Professor  Barrett  Wendell's  "  Literature  of  America". 
Turn  to  his  chapter  on  intellectualism  in  New  England  and  the  chapter  on 
transcendentalism  in  Boston,  especially  in  relation  to  literature.  Some  of 
the  freshest  and  most  epigrammatic  reading  I  have  found  for  some  time  in 
new  books,  has  been  found  in  these  chapters.  Professor  Wendell  puts  his 
finger  upon  the  real  spring  of  literary  and  religious  life  in  New  England  in 
the  beginning  and  in  tne  middle  of  the  last  century.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
New  Englanders  had  been  living  shut  up  in  a  corner,  away  from  the  main 
currents  of  history  for  a  number  of  generations.  They  were  the  direct 
descendants  of  the  finest  stock  that  could  be,  Puritan  stock,  on  its  relig- 
ious and  moral  side.  There  were  not  many  people  that  were  too  rich  and 
not  many  people  that  were  too  poor.  They  were  all  on  somewhat  of  a  social 
equality.  They  had  the  advantages  of  good  education,  of  religious  training, 
of  quiet  and  average  prosperity  in  the  things  of  this  world,  the  very  con- 
ditions of  life  that  would  make  for  continual  satisfaction  and  peace.  The 
result  was  the  development  of  an  average  society  which  was,  perhaps,  more 
moral  than  any  the  world  has  seen  anywhere  else.  And,  therefore,  a  sort  of 
consciousness  of  excellence  arose,  out  of  which  they  judged  even  religion 
itself,  a  consciousness  of  excellence  that  led  them  to  turn  round  upon  the 
doctrines  of  the  Puritan  fathers,  the  very  doctrines  that  made  them  what 
they  were,  and  at  last  condemn  them  and  pass  them  by.  Professor  Wendell 
puts  the  feeling,  the  spirit  that  was  wide-spread  in  New  England  at  that 
time  in  a  number  of  different  paragraphs  from  which  I  will  take  these 
sentences:  "Human  nature  is  good.  You  are  made  right.  Mind,  body, 
soul,  spirit  are  all  made  right.  Obey  yourself  and  you  need  have  no  fear. 
All  things  worth  serious  and  earnest  thought  transcend  human  spirit,  but  a 
trustworthy  clue  to  them  is  to  be  found  in  the  unfathomable  excellence  of 
human  minds,  souls  and  spirits". 

Now,  this  "unfathomable  excellence"  that  some  of  them  were  con- 
scious of  possessing,  not  as  individuals  but  as  members  of  a  society,  was 
something  like  that  "  unfathomable  excellence  "  of  religious  consciousness 
and  moral  life  which  Jesus  found  possessed  by  large  numbers  of  the  Phari- 
sees of  His  day.  And  Jesus,  to  one  of  the  most  excellent  of  these,  one  of 
the  most  really  excellent  individuals  among  them,  comes  down  with  that  tre- 
mendous blow,  "  You  must  be  born  again  ".  It  is  an  assertion  that  goes 
deep  into  the  heart  of  things ;  Jesus  shows  how  deep  it  goes  when  He  says, 
"  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh  " ;  the  natural  flow  of  life  down  the 


386  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

race  history  "  is  flesh  ".  "  That  which  you  would  call  spirit,  spiritual  in 
human  experience,  must  come  from  spirit ;  it  must  come  out  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  Himself ". 

Religion  is  not  flesh  growing  up  into  spirit.  Religion  is  the  spirit  com- 
ing down  into  the  flesh.  Religion  is  not  man  scaling  the  ladder  boldly, 
breaking  the  gates  of  heaven  down  and  advancing,  as  Ingersoll  said  he 
would  advance,  bravely  to  the  foot  of  the  throne.  Religion,  the  Christian 
religion,  is  God  coming  from  the  throne  down  the  ladder,  on  which  angels 
ascend  and  descend,  coming  down  to  man,  taking  hold  of  human  nature. 
The  Kingdom  of  God  comes  to  human  life  as  the  God  of  life  came  to  a 
world  of  mechanical  or  chemical  dust, — from  above.  The  Kingdom  of 
God  comes  and  takes  hold  of  human  nature,  conscious,  living,  intelligent, 
as  intelligence  came  and  took  hold  of  the  dull,  dead  life  of  the  plant  world 
— from  above.  The  spirit  of  the  Eternal  God,  Jesus  Christ  said,  must  come, 
if  any  man  would  enter  that  kingdom,  to  seize  that  man  and  lead  him  in. 
Only  that  which  is  of  the  spirit  can  be  spiritual. 

2.  And  now,  let  us  look  at  the  opposite.  Here  there  comes  to  Jesus 
a  woman  whose  moral  need  is  confessed  and  open.  She  can  not  think,  like 
Nicodemus,  that  she  is  fit  for  the  presence  of  God,  just  as  she  is.  Poor 
Nicodemus,  with  his  eyes  unopened,  thought  that  as  he  was  he  might  see 
God,  he  might  enter  the  kingdom.  But  poor  Nicodemus  must  be  taught  by 
Jesus  that,  until  his  eyes  were  opened,  he  could  not  see  God ;  until  his 
heart  was  changed,  he  could  not  enter  the  kingdom.  But  this  woman,  are 
her  eyes  opened  ?  Are  her  feet  moving  towards  that  kingdom  ?  Almost 
the  last  thing  she  is  thinking  of  is  religion,  and  the  very  last  thing  she  is 
thinking  of  is  righteousness.  She  is  not  there  on  a  religious  errand.  She 
is  not  there  expectant  of  a  moral  blessing.  She  is  there  just  because  she 
has  put  off  and  put  off  coming  for  water,  until  she  had  to  do  so  in  the  very 
heat  of  the  day.  For  her  slothful,  indolent  life  always  ends  in  inconven- 
ience for  herself,  and,  instead  of  coming  out  when  others  did,  she  waited, 
either  lazy  or  ashamed,  until  the  others  had  gone  back  to  town.  And  under 
the  burning  sun  she  came  out  alone,  and  found  another  Sunlight  at  the  well. 

When  Jesus  arouses  her  curiosity,  she  expresses  her  surprise.  He 
begins  at  the  root  of  the  matter.  He  says,  "If  you  had  known  who  was 
speaking  to  you,  you  would  have  asked  Him  for  water  and  He  would  have 
given  you  living  water".  She  could  not  understand  this  saying,  of  course, 
but  Jesus  was  the  most  perfect  Teacher  which  the  world  ever  saw.  You 
can  never  have  success  in  teaching  until  you  have  personal  interest  aroused, 
and  personal  interest  involves  some  measure  of  curiosity.  He  arouses, 
therefore,  her  curiosity  and  personal  interest  by  the  very  form  of  the 
words  in  whicti  He  makes  His  most  wonderful  declaration.  He  says  to 
that  woman,  "I  could  give  you  living  water".  And  still,  because  she  is 
confused  among  the  symbols  of  things,  she  tauntingly  laughs  and  says, 
"  You  have  nothing  to  draw  with,  and  the  well  is  now  very  deep.  How  can 
you  do  that?  Are  you  greater  than  Jacob,  our  father?"  She  boasted  of 
the  antiquity  of  the  well,  and  the  honor  of  the  man  who  had  given  it  to  the 


THE  METHOD  OE  JESUS  WITH  INDIVIDUALS.       3K7 

history  of  her  people  for  so  many  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  years.  Jesus, 
coming  a  little  closer  to  the  matter,  says  to  her  that  this  water  which  He  is 
speaking  of  is  not  the  kind  which  she  is  thinking  of,  and,  therefore,  the  well 
is  not  one  that  can  be  compared  with  that  of  Jacob.  "  Everyone  that  drink- 
eth  of  this  water  shall  thirst  again  ", — and  oh,  how  she  knows  that.  How 
she  wishes  that  she  and  they  of  her  household  did  not  get  thirsty  so  quickly, 
so  that  she  would  not  have  to  come  out  so  often  to  draw  this  water  in  the 
heat  of  the  day, — "  but  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water  that  1  shall  give 
him  shall  never  thirst,  and  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall  become  in 
him  a  well  of  water,  springing  up  into  eternal  life  ".  She  does  not  under- 
stand that,  and  Jesus  knows  it.  He  is  still  quickening  her  curiosity  and 
leading  her  on  and  on.  She  thinks,  "  What  a  strange  man  is  this,  talking 
about  having  a  well  of  water  inside  oneself,  springing  up  into  everlasting 
life  ?  What  strange  words  are  these ! "  And  yet  there  is  something  so 
earnest,  so  authoritative,  in  the  tone  of  the  Speaker  that  she  presses  on  to 
ask  further  questions  and  to  get  into  the  heart  of  the  meaning  of  this  strange 
Jew,  who  not  only  speaks  to  a  woman,  contrary  to  all  etiquette,  but  even  to  a 
Samaritan  woman,  contrary  to  all  national  prejudices. 

When  the  woman  says  to  Him,  with  laughter  still  in  her  voice,  without 
much  earnestness,  and  yet  beginning  perhaps  to  be  half  shy,  as  if  in  the 
presence  of  an  Authority  she  had  not  expected,  "Give  me  this  water", 
Jesus  deals  another  astounding  blow.  "Go,  call  thy  husband  and  come 
hither  ".  Go  and  bring  him  into  my  presence  !  And  she  knows,  after  a 
few  instances  more,  that  He  knows  more  about  her  than  she  did  herself. 
She  has  been  brought  right  down  from  considerations  of  etiquette  and  from 
enigmatic  w-ords  into  the  heart  of  the  moral  universe.  Being  there  she  no 
doubt  is  asking  herself  now  more  rapidly  than  she  can  speak, —  you  all  know 
how^  you  ask  questions  in  your  heart  faster  than  your  lips  can  utter  them  in 
the  intensity  of  your  soul  at  some  great  crisis, —  she  is  asking  questions  that 
never  can  be  uttered,  faster,  faster,  about  Him  and  her,  and  her  past  and 
the  future,  and  the  kind  of  woman  that  stands  there,  and  how  she  could 
stand  before  that  Face,  if  that  other  man  was  with  her.  Then  when  she 
tries  to  turn  the  conversation  aside  to  sectarian  controversies  about  worship, 
because  she  perceived  that  He  was  a  prophet,  Jesus  leads  her  mind  up  to 
heights  unreached  by  human  minds  before,  in  all  the  history  of  man's 
climbing  search  for  God. 

To  that  poor  woman,  now  feeling  forlorn  and  ashamed,  astounded  by 
this  blow  that  has  come  upon  her,  Jesus  speaks  of  God  in  phrases  sublime 
and  of  eternal  glory.  "  God  is  Spirit  ",  He  says,  and  from  that  word  to  that 
degraded  woman  light  pours  upon  us  all  today.  He  had  not  said  "Father" 
to  Nicodemus,  but  He  says  "  Father  "  to  the  woman  at  the  well.  "  Father  " 
is  the  great  key-word  that  He  would  employ  when  He  speaks  to  souls  like 
hers,  to  consciences  working  like  that  conscience  now,  in  hearts  like  that 
heart.  "The  Father".  Oh,  what  wealth  of  good  tidings  flows  from  that 
name,  as  it  falls  from  His  lips!  She  never  heard  it  applied  to  God  in  all 
her  life.     She  never  dreamed  that  the  Everlasting  Jehovah,  whom  Samari- 


388  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

tan  and  Jew  alike  worshipped  and  dreaded,  could  be  named  by  any  individ- 
ual as  "  Father  ".  And  here,  One  whom  she  feels  to  be  a  prophet,  One 
whom  she  recognizes  as  speaking  from  God,  with  that  instinctive  recogni- 
tion of  the  soul  that  is  surer  than  anything  else,  He  speaks  to  her  of  that 
God,  as  "  Father  ".  He  says,  "  The  Father  does  not  care  whether  you  pray 
in  that  mountain  there,  or  whether  you  pray  at  Jerusalem,  from  which  I 
come.  The  Father  does  not  care  for  place  and  time.  The  Father  cares  for 
spirit  and  heart  and  truth.  It  is  a  question  of  whether  you  kneel  down  in 
the  world  of  truth,  not  in  the  world  of  matter ;  whether  you  kneel  down  in 
spirit  and  in  faith,  not  whether  you  kneel  dov/n  in  ceremony  and  in  fear 
The  question  is  not  v/hether  you  kneel  down  to  speak  in  the  language  of  the 
Samaritan  or  Jews.  The  question  is  whether  the  words  go  to  Him  out  of 
your  heart,  for  the  Father  seeketh  the  sincere  to  worship  Him". 

And  then,  thinking  with  a  new  eagerness,  but  shrinking  from  the 
immediate  demands  which  God's  Fatherhood  at  once  makes  on  her,  she 
seeks  postponement  by  reference  to  the  Messiah,  who  will  clear  up  all  these 
diflficulties  for  her.  "There  is  One  coming,  some  day,  who  will  make  it  all 
plain ;  the  Jews  are  expecting  Him,  the  Samaritans  are  expecting  Him  ; 
and  it  does  not  matter  whether  He  comes  into  Samaria  or  Jerusalem,  He 
will  make  it  all  clear ;  He  will  solve  all  doubts  ".  She  can  not  dispute  with 
Him  as  to  whether  He  is  preaching  orthodoxy  or  heterodoxy ;  she  will  not 
proceed  into  these  mysteries  farther ;  but  she  says,  "All  the  same  I  hope, 
like  the  rest  of  my  people,  for  the  Messiah.  When  He  comes  He  will  make 
it  all  plain  and  then —  "     "  I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  He"  ! 

Jesus  has  disclosed  to  that  woman,  more  explicitly  than  to  anyone  else, 
the  great  mystery  of  His  person.  He  is  the  Messiah.  He  is  the  explainer 
of  all  things.  What  He  has  been  saying  to  her,  promising  to  her,  of  the 
well  of  water  that  He  could  strike  from  the  rock  of  her  hard  heart,  hardened 
by  a  life  of  sin.  He  has  said  because  He  is  the  Messiah.  He  can  make  the 
water  of  life  spring  up  even  in  that  heart  unto  everlasting  life. 

Jesus,  then,  has  with  this  woman  proceeded  upon  the  opposite  plan 
from  that  adopted  in  relation  to  Nicodemus  and  reached  the  same  point. 
Nicodemus  had  not  committed  gross  sins,  and,  like  the  young  ruler  was 
living  in  the  self-satisfaction  of  what  his  people  would  call  a  clean  life;  as 
touching  the  law,  blameless,  and  yet  Jesus  says  that  "he  must  be  born 
again ".  His  moral  need  was  deeper  than  he  ever  dreamed.  With  that 
woman,  whose  moral  need  was  very  evident  to  herself  and  to  all.  He  takes 
it  all  for  granted.  He  does  not  require  to  prove  to  her  that  she  needs  the 
great  change.  The  change  will  come  to  her  when  she  calls  God  her  Father, 
on  the  authority  of  Jesus  the  Messiah. 

So  varied  and  so  sure  is  the  way  of  Jesus  with  the  souls  of  men.  How 
dare  we  ask  Him  to  lead  any  two  persons  alike,  when  here,  in  the  Gospel  of 
John  it  is  shown  so  plainly  that  He  treats  people  in  such  opposite  ways  to 
reach  the  same  result  ? 

At  which  end  have  you  been  living?  At  which  end  does  your  con- 
science find  you  this  morning?     Can  you  sit  here  in  this  church  of  God  and 


THE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  WITH  INDIVIDUALS.       389 

say, — "  I  am  like  Nicodemus.  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  committed  any  great 
crime,  that  I  have  any  great  shame  upon  my  life ;  and  that  is  one  of  my 
difficulties  about  religion"?  The  message  of  Christ,  I  take  it,  to  you  and 
to  all  of  such  a  class  is  this:  Nevertheless,  if  you  want  to  enter  the  Kingdom 
of  the  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  God  must  come  down  upon  you,  and  when  that 
Spirit  touches  your  heart  the  change  will  be  so  great  that  you  yourself  will 
say,  "It  is  a  being  born  again".  Are  you  ready  to  face  it  ?  Your  moral 
need,  however  good  you  be,  is  greater  than  you  know,  and  when  that  Spirit 
has  touched  your  heart.  He  will  wake  up  a  sense,  even  of  sin,  that  you  never 
dreamed  it  possible  that  you  could  have.  Perhaps  there  is  some  one  sitting 
here  who  is  conscious  of  having  done  great  wrong  against  conscience  in 
some  direction  in  the  past,  the  long  past  or  the  near  past.  To  you  the 
message  of  Christ  is  just  that  which  He  gave  to  the  woman.  Your  heart 
can  only  be  cleansed,  that  open  sore  have  the  festering  poison  washed 
away  with  living  water.  There  is  a  spiritual  antiseptic  for  the  wounds  of 
the  heart,  and  it  is  given  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  When  that  comes  washing 
through  the  heart,  the  horrid  abscess  is  cleansed  and  the  healing  is  begun. 
Will  you  all,  shall  we  all,  wherever  Christ  finds  us,  shall  we  all  unite  in 
saying,  "Good  or  bad  hitherto,  at  the  top  or  the  bottom  of  the  scale,  we  all 
meet,  meet  in  one  great  need,  meet  in  one  earnest  prayer,  meet  in  one  living 
trust  in  God  the  Father,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  "? 


*  THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL. 
by   rev.    frederic   p.a.l3vier,  ]v1.  a., 

Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Andover,  Mass. 
(St.  John  20  :3i.) 

"These  things  are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life  through  His  name". 

A  brisk  discussion  took  place  some  years  ago  as  to  whether  a  novel 
should  have  a  purpose.  "  See  the  inartistic,  namby-pamby  stuff",  said  the 
one  party,  "  which  is  produced  when  your  novelist  tries  to  advocate  tem- 
perance or  social  reform  or  some  theory  about  women.  He  pretends  to 
come  open-handed,  but  all  the  time  he  is  keeping  one  hand  behind  him,  and 
all  the  time  you  can  see  that  he  is  doing  so,  and  it  makes  him  awkward  and 
you  disgusted.  You  demand  to  have  your  pill  and  your  sugar  separately  ". 
"  Well ",  says  the  other  party,  "  the  thing,  it  is  true,  may  be  done  badly, 
but  without  a  purpose  your  novel  degenerates  into  a  newspaper.  You 
merely  bind  together  some  scenes  and  conversations  and  call  them  a  story, 
but  they  are  a  bundle  of  sketches  with  no  unity.  They  are  not  even  a 
chronicle,  for  that  has  in  it  a  unifying  thread  of  time.  True  art  will  no 
doubt  keep  a  purpose  where  it  is  in  well-ordered  life,  not  thrusting  itself 
forward  in  long-haired  men  and  short-haired  women,  but  hidden,  yet  dom- 
inant in  every  act  and  word.  A  novel  without  a  purpose  is  like  a  life  with- 
out a  career.  In  order  to  be  a  story  it  must  have  something  to  say. 
Merely  to  record  facts  without  pointing  out  their  significance,  is  to  be 
simply  a  car  conductor's  bell-register". 

A  recent  writer  in  the  "  London  Spectator  "  has  been  extendmg  this 
view  to  history.  It  is  impossible,  he  maintains,  for  true  history  to  be  uncol- 
ored.  Take,  on  the  one  hand,  the  historian  who  aims  to  show  events  in  the 
bare,  cold  light  of  science,  and,  on  the  other,  one  who  is  so  much  inter- 
ested in  a  man  or  a  cause  that  he  follows  the  leading  of  this  and  sees  events 
in  its  light,  and  you  are  more  likely  to  learn  the  real  state  of  affairs  through 
the  latter  than  through  the  former.  For  in  the  latter  case  the  historian's 
"  control  "  as  the  Spiritualists  would  say,  can  be  seen,  generally  plainly  seen, 
and  its  influence  allowed  for ;  while  in  the  former  case  the  historian  has  not 
sympathy  enough  with  his  man  or  his  time  to  enable  his  imagination  to 
reconstruct  its  inner  life.  For  it  is  imagination  that  must  take  data  and 
rebuild  the  past.  The  copying,  or  even  the  sifting,  of  records  is  not  suffi- 
cient. To  fill  the  dry  bones  of  the  past  with  life  requires  almost  as  much 
creative  power  as  to  shape  life  out  of  the  duties  and  events  of  the  present. 


*  Delivered  at  the  Fourth  Conference,  held  at  Grace  Episcopal  Church,  January  13,  1904. 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION.  391 

Both  demand  a  hold  upon  ideals  and  a  constant  adjustment  of  facts  to  them. 
And  this  necessitates  imagination.  Imagination  has  its  dangers,  its  ten- 
dencies to  romance  and  to  preaching,  but  it  has  its  compensations.  Like 
oxen,  it  makes  a  muss  and  also  wealth.  "  Where  no  oxen  are,  the  crib  i.s 
clean  ;  but  much  labor  is  with  the  strength  of  the  ox  ". 

Such  considerations  occur  to  us  as  we  consider  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
especially  its  differences  from  the  Synoptic  Gospels.  And  in  no  part  of  it 
are  these  differences  more  apparent  than  in  the  chapters  from  the  fifth  to 
the  eleventh.  Compare  this  section  with  almost  any  part  of  the  Gospel  of 
St.  Mark,  for  example.  The  latter  is  comparatively  simple  of  thought,  not 
analytic,  not  theologic.  There  is  an  atmosphere  about  it  that  is  fresh, 
glad,  young.  You  can  see  the  blue  Lake  sparkling  in  the  morning  sunshine, 
and  the  golden  fields  of  Galilee,  rich  with  lilies  and  vocal  with  birds.  It  is 
concerned  with  facts  ungarnished,  unrelated  to  any  scheme  of  thought. 
The  utterances  of  Jesus  in  it  are  deep  and  spiritual,  but  there  is  in  them  no 
touch  of  mysticism ;  they  say  little  about  His  nature,  or  His  relation  to  man 
or  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  tone  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  mature,  medita- 
tive, mystical.  The  life  it  reflects  is  subtle  and  complex.  It  is  full  of  the- 
ology. The  events  it  narrates  are  given  apparently  not  so  much  for  their 
historical  value  as  for  a  purpose,  a  purpose  of  instruction  and  edification. 
It  appears  as  if  aiming  to  set  forth  and  illustrate  a  theory.  Its  gaze  is 
dreamy,  far-distant,  so  far  that  on  its  horizon  the  line  between  earth  and 
heaven  is  indistinguishable.  The  Synoptic  Gospels  are  full  of  brief,  epi- 
grammatic sayings  of  Jesus,  and  of  stories  of  His,  illustrating  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  The  Fourth  Gospel,  with  one  possible  exception,  contains  no 
parable,  and  the  discourses  of  Jesus  in  it  are  involved  in  style,  and  are 
occupied  with  setting  forth  the  spiritual  relations  of  men  to  Him  and  His 
relations  to  His  Father.  The  Synoptics  and  the  Fourth  Gospel  are  not 
merely  different;  they  are  in  some  respects  contradictory.  In  the  Fourth 
Gospel  there  is  no  development  in  the  history  of  Jesus'  public  ministry. 
His  Messiahship  is  at  once  announced  by  John  the  Baptist,  recognized  by 
the  disciples,  and  exhibited  to  the  multitudes  assembled  at  Jerusalem.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  His  Messianic  character  is 
unfolded  only  gradually.  Those  who  discover  it  are  bidden  to  keep  it  con- 
cealed. His  closest  disciples  are  slow  to  recognize  it,  and  it  is  openly 
announced  only  at  the  close  of  His  career.  Again,  the  character  of  the  life 
is  different  which  the  followers  of  Christ  will  share  through  their  connec- 
tion with  Him.  In  the  first  three  Gospels  it  is  a  blessed  existence  in  some 
distant  sphere  in  the  future.  The  present  is  only  preparatory  to  it,  for  this 
life  will  pass  away  before  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  will  begin. 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  reward  of  the  followers  of  Christ  is  eternal 
life ;  and  this  is  conceived  not  so  much  as  waiting  upon  a  future  day  as  a 
matter  of  here  and  now,  for  it  consists  of  union  of  spirit  with  Him.  The 
Christ  of  St.  Luke  places  the  resurrection  and  the  moral  assessment  of  life 
far  distant  at  the  world's  end.     St.  John   makes  the  Christ  repudiate  this 


392  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

view,  and  declare  that  He  is  Himself  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  and  that 
belief  in  Him  carries  life  with  it  immediately. 

Such  differences  and  contrarieties  must  spring  from  a  difference  of 
view  in  the  writers.  They  must  have  regarded  Jesus  differently,  and  they 
must  have  had  different  aims  in  writing.  To  examine  the  aim  of  each  of 
the  first  three  writers  is  not  possible  to-day.  But  in  case  of  the  author  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel  we  cannot  but  suspect  before  we  reach  the  end  of  his 
book  that  he  has  a  special  purpose ;  and  when  we  reach  the  last  chapter 
but  one  we  find  it  distinctly  stated.  "  These  things  are  written  that  ye 
might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing, 
ye  might  have  life  through  His  name  ".  His  work,  then,  is  not  a  biography 
of  Jesus,  not  a  history  of  the  events  of  His  time ;  but  the  author  aimed  to 
demonstrate  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  and  the  Son  of  God,  and  this  not 
so  much  for  intellectual  conviction  as  for  spiritual  edification.  He  alone 
speculates  on  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  Almighty  Creator.  He  alone  sees 
in  Him  the  representative  in  human  conditions  of  a  side  of  God's  nature 
which  forever  existed.  The  Synoptists  exhibit  Jesus  as  preaching  the 
truth.  The  Fourth  Evangelist  regards  Jesus  as  being  Himself  the  Truth, 
the  eternal  Thought  and  Reasonableness  of  God.  It  is  not  merely  the  case 
with  him,  as  with  the  others,  that  following  Christ's  precepts  will  result  in 
a  life  which  exemplifies  that  of  Jesus ;  but  with  him,  Jesus  is  Life  itself,  all 
that  gives  wealth,  joy,  and  worth  to  existence.  Christ  is  not  only  an  objec- 
tive, historic  being  who  once  lived  and  died,  but  He  is  the  subjective  prin- 
ciple of  life  within  the  soul.  The  First  and  Third  Evangelists  give  tradi- 
tions of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  though  even  they  ignore  them  afterwards  and 
sometimes  contradict  them.  The  Second  Evangelist  hears  the  beginning 
of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  voice  of  John  the  Baptist.  But  the 
Fourth  Evangelist  could  have  nothing  to  do  with  traditions  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus,  for  to  him  the  history  of  Christ  went  back  through  the  ages  and  be- 
gan in  the  beginning  with  God. 

When  we  have  apprehended  how  widely  different  the  portrait  of  Jesus 
is  which  is  given  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  from  that  of  the  other  three,  we 
hastily  turn  and  ask,  "  Is  it  authentic  ?  How  far  does  it  represent  the  real 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  or  hoM'  far  was  it  owing  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  author, 
whoever  he  was  ?  This  special  tinge  which  the  Fourth  Gospel  has  through- 
out, is  that  the  artist's  coloring,  or  is  the  portrait  trustworthy  ?  May  we 
assume  the  historic  character  of  the  Gospel  ?  " 

I  think  we  must  answer  in  some  respects.  No.  When  an  author  disclaims 
the  writing  of  history,  we  may  not  hold  him  to  historic  accuracy.  He  has 
his  face  set  in  another  direction.  Moreover — and  this  applies  to  other  parts 
of  the  Bible  as  well— the  conditions  of  what  we  know  as  historic  accuracy 
did  not  then  exist.  There  were  no  means  of  making  immediate  and  exact 
reports  of  conversations  or  events.  When  recorded  afterwards,  it  was  their 
substance  which  the  writer  endeavored  to  embody,  not  their  form  The 
discourses  of  historic  persons  in  ancient  writings,  for  example,  are  rarely 
authentic  in  form.     The  author  takes  certain  utterances  which  may  have 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION.  393 

been  genuine  or  certain  ideas  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  and  weaves 
from  them  a  speech  which  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  one  he  is  describ- 
ing. This  is  noticeable  in  some  of  the  speeches  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts, 
TertuUus,  a  noted  orator,  is  hired  to  conduct  the  case  of  the  Jews  against 
Paul.  To  justify  engaging  a  professional  advocate,  the  speech  must  have 
been  a  long  one.  It  takes  less  than  one  minute  to  read  it.  The  part  of  a 
long  and  weighty  speech  which  would  be  apt  to  be  retained  would  naturally 
,be  the  opening  rather  than  the  after-parts ;  and  in  the  Acts  the  preamble  of 
this  speech  occupies  almost  half  of  the  whole.  Such  an  instance  shows 
that  in  the  Bible,  as  in  other  ancient  writings,  speeches  especially  were 
freely  treated.  And  this  we  must  bear  in  mind  in  considering  the  speeches 
of  Jesus  given  in  the  section  from  the  fifth  to  the  eleventh  chapters  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  It  adds  to  the  improbability  of  their  stenographic  accuracy 
that  the  style  of  them  is  wholly  different  from  the  utterances  of  Jesus  as 
given  in  the  other  Gospels.  The  brief,  pithy  sentences  and  vital  metaphors 
which  the  earlier  Gospels  ascribe  to  Him,  all  bear  one  sharp  and  individual 
stamp  ;  but  these  are  widely  different  from  the  close  involutions  of  argu- 
ment of  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  intricacies  of  metaphysical  thought 
underlying  them.  And  what  is  true  of  historic  data  and  of  style,  may  be 
also  true  in  some  respects  of  the  underlying  theology,  for  it  partly  is 
conditioned  by  them.  Was  this  theologic  view  of  Jesus  a  peculiarity  of 
the  author,  or  was  Jesus  in  reality  the  mystic  being  here  portrayed  ? 

The  evidence  to  decide  this  must  be  largely  internal ;  that  is,  we  must 
take  features  which  seem  unquestionably  historic  and  see  whether  others 
which  are  asserted  harmonize  with  them.  If  they  do  not  melt  into  a  unity, 
the  presumption  is  that  they  were  inaccurately  reported  or  come  from  the 
peculiarities  of  the  author. 

In  our  judgment  of  the  authenticity  of  the  portrait  of  Jesus  given  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  we  shall  consider  whether  its  special  features  are  harmo- 
nious with  the  best  type  found  elsewhere. 

Now  there  is  another  source  of  information  with  regard  to  Jesus  besides 
the  Gospels.  Half  a  century  at  least  before  the  writing  of  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel, and  a  quarter-century  or  so  before  the  earliest  of  any  of  our  four,  St. 
Paul  began  sending  epistles  to  his  distant  friends.  He  made  no  attempt  to 
describe  the  events  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  for  he  was  but  little  interested  in 
them ;  but  Jesus'  character  impressed  him  profoundly.  Now  it  is  most 
significant  that  with  him,  too,  as  well  as  with  the  author  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  it  is  the  subjective,  spiritual  side  of  Christ  with  which  he  is  mainly 
concerned ;  it  is  Christ's  part  in  the  great  world-process  of  union  between 
God  and  man.  He  contemplates  Jesus  as  embodying  the  human  side  of 
God  and  the  divine  side  of  man.  "Christ"  with  him  has  passed  from  a 
title  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  a  designation  of  the  ideal  man,  the  consumma- 
tion of  all  that  is  best  in  the  world,  the  typical  instance  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  soul  and  of  the  human  race.  He  is  the  spiritual  expression  of 
humanity.  He  is  the  complete  embodiment  of  God  under  human  condi- 
tions.     At  one   time    St  Paul   refers   to   Jesus  as  a  historic  person  who 


394  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

lived  and  died  at  Jerusalem.  At  another  time  Christ  is  a  spiritual  being, 
but  external  to  the  soul,  the  giver  of  all  its  true  life.  Again  He  is  within 
the  soul,  its  very  life  and  essence.  From  one  to  another  of  these  great 
conceptions  he  hurries,  as  it  is  now  this,  now  that  aspect  which  attracts  his 
attention  at  the  time.  They  tangle  his  thought  into  inextricable  sentences. 
The  mystery  of  the  mingling  of  human  and  divine  in  the  soul  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  in  the  race  so  overcomes  him  that  he  bursts  out  into  poetry  and 
a  torrent  of  prepositions  :  "  For  of  Him,  and  through  Him,  and  to  Himi 
are  all  things ;  to  whom  be  glory  forever.     Amen  ". 

The  similarity  of  these  two  conceptions,  of  course,  suggests  the  question 
whether  the  later  was  borrowed  from  the  earlier.  But  this  is  a  question  of 
little  importance.  Whether  the  Fourth  Evangelist  came  across  this  view 
in  his  travels  among  those  churches  of  Asia  which  St.  Paul  had  founded ; 
whether  it  was  struck  out  in  his  conflict  with  Gnostic  speculation  as  the 
only  method  of  reconciling  the  infinity  of  God  with  the  finiteness  and  evil 
of  the  world  ;  or  whether  it  came  to  him  after  long  years  of  quiet  meditation 
as  the  necessary  development  of  certain  germs  of  character  he  had  seen  or 
learned  of  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  this  is  of  secondary  importance.  The 
chief  thing  is  that  he  deliberately  adopted  it,  endorsed  it,  and  made  it  the 
basis  of  his  portrait  of  his  Master. 

Portrait — that  is  the  word  we  must  keep  in  mind  in  considering  this 
Gospel.  It  is  not  a  photograph  of  Jesus.  How  do  a  portrait  and  a  photo- 
graph differ  ?  The  one  gives  the  fact  of  the  moment  and  from  one  point  of 
view.  Place  yourself  at  the  camera  and  put  your  sitter  in  a  given  position, 
and  this  photograph  is  precisely  what  you  see.  It  is  the  scientifically 
correct  record  of  these  particular  conditions.  But  as  a  complete  report  of 
the  man  it  may  be  gravely  inaccurate.  "  He  never  takes  well  ",  we  say  of 
this  or  that  person,  "  his  face  has  so  much  expression".  Where  a  subject 
is  complex,  the  photograph,  by  recording  only  one  aspect,  may  convey  an 
absolutely  false  impression.  But  the  portrait-painter  endeavors  to  show  the 
full,  the  real  man.  The  greatness  of  a  Rembrandt  or  a  Watts  portrah  does 
not  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  tells  us  of  what  color  the  subject's  eyes  were  or 
what  kind  of  a  coat  he  wore.  We  care  very  little  whether  the  artist  was 
historically  accurate  in  these  details  or  not.  But  we  stand  in  amazement  at 
seeing  a  human  soul  gazing  at  us  from  the  canvas — a  soul  calm  or  frivolous, 
humorous,  vain,  or  profound.  It  is  the  roan  himself  that  we  see ;  not  his 
clothes,  not  his  appearance  at  one  time  or  under  special  circumstances,  but 
the  composite,  complete  man.  Before  the  artist  can  create  his  likeness  he 
must  create  him.  The  sitter  presents  himself  before  the  artist's  judgment- 
seat  and  the  artist  gives  sentence  upon  him  with  every  stroke  of  his  brush. 
"  Your  character  is  thus  and  so.  You  are  a  coward  here,  a  hero  there. 
Thus  I  strip  off  all  accidentals  of  time  and  circumstances,  and  behold,  your 
real  self  stands  revealed  ".  It  must  require  much  confidence  to  have  one's 
portrait  painted  by  a  great  artist. 

It  is  such  a  likeness  of  Christ  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  gives  us.  St. 
Mark,  with  his  loving  eye  for  details,  records  this  and  that  circumstance 


THE  PERSONAL  EQUATION.  395 

which  we  welcome  as  furnishing  the  fact-basis  for  our  conception  of  our 
Lord.  And  then  comes  St.  John ;  and  upon  this  background  he  paints  so 
wonderfully  that  we  behold  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  (Jod 
beaming  forth  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  presumption  in  behalf  of 
the  accuracy  of  His  portrait  that  it  is  not  a  summary  of  facts,  but  it  is  the 
impression  which  Christ  made  as  a  whole  upon  an  artist  of  constructive 
imagination  and  profound  spiritual  insight.  The  greatness  of  the  character 
thus  revealed,  is,  it  is  true,  not  of  itself  a  proof  of  its  historic  accuracy. 
Moving  as  it  is,  it  might  yet  be  no  revelation  of  the  historic  Jesus,  but  a 
product  merely  of  the  writer's  lofty  imagination.  But  when  we  see  that  the 
figure  it  presents  is  the  Jesus  of  the  Synoptists,  raised  to  a  higher  degree  of 
spiritual  development;  when  we  see  this  conception  buttressed  by  the  first 
Epistle  of  St.  John  and  the  later  Epistles  of  St.  Paul;  then  we  feel  we  have 
a  right  to  reckon  as  evidence  for  its  accuracy  its  mastery  over  our  souls  and 
its  call  upon  our  worship ;  then  we  exclaim,  "  My  Lord  must  have  been  noth- 
ing less  than  that".  We  recognize  that  the  author  has  attained  his  purpose. 
"These  things",  he  said,  "  are  written  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  believing,  ye  might  have  life  through 
His  name  ".     Life  comes  to  us  through  the  name  he  has  written  large. 

See  it  there — his  conception — the  Incarnation — -opening  to  its  wealth 
of  meaning  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  If  we  had  possessed  no  more  than  the 
first  three  Gospels,  we  should  have  had  a  wonderful  Christ,  an  example  and 
an  inspiration.  But  He  would  have  been  a  historic  being  only;  we  should 
have  had  no  warrant  for  identifying  Him  with  the  divine  life  of  our  souls, 
dwelling  with  us  and  abiding  in  us.  But  the  Christ  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is 
the  connecting  link  between  the  outward  and  the  inward,  between  the 
historic  and  the  spiritual.  He  is  the  representative  in  bodily  conditions,  in 
terms  of  time  and  space,  of  that  human  side  which  existed  forever  in  the 
nature  of  God.  The  life  of  Jesus  was  in  time ;  but  the  divine  sonship,  the 
existence  in  God  of  a  human  side,  was  independent  of  time  and  humanity, 
being  eternal.  This  was  authentically  exhibited  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Not 
that  He  is  Himself  the  Almighty,  for  neither  in  this  Gospel  nor  elsewhere 
in  the  New  Testament  is  it  asserted  as  a  theological  proposition  that  Jesus 
is  God.  But  He  is  the  representative  of  God.  If  God  had  lived,  a  man  on 
earth,  He  would  have  done  just  as  Jesus  did.  He  showed  thought  and  love 
and  goodness  as  existing  forever  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  and  constitut- 
ing in  Him  the  ground  of  connection  with  humanity.  And,  on  the  other 
hand.  He  showed  this  same  goodness  and  thought  and  love  as  the  true 
nature  of  men,  and  constituting  in  them  the  ground  of  union  with  God.  He 
brought  God  down  to  men,  and  raised  men  up  to  (iod.  And  as  He  is  God's 
representative,  so  whatsoever  things  in  the  world  are  true,  pure,  just,  lovely, 
these  are  His  representatives.  In  Him  is  life,  and  the  life  is  the  light  of 
men.  The  soul  of  the  world,  all  the  calls  to  noble  desire,  all  that  makes  life 
worth  living,  this  is  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  It  is  such  a  con- 
ception of  Jesus  as  this  that  is  the  characteristic  gift  to  us  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel. 


396  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

The  question  is  sometimes  asked,  "  How  do  we  know  that  Jesus  will 
not  be  superseded  in  that  unique  position  which  the  Gospel  of  John  assigns 
Him,  just  as  He  Himself  superseded  the  prophets  which  were  before  Him  ?  " 
Or,  to  put  it  in  spiritual  language,  "  How  do  we  know  that  He  is  God's  only 
Son?"  Certainly  He  is  not  such  in  the  sense  that  God  has  no  other  sons; 
for  we  too  are  sons  of  God  as  really  as  was  Jesus.  But  certainly  He  is,  in 
the  sense  that  His  revelation  of  God  is  unique  and  final.  However  this  may 
be  further  developed — and  St.  Paul  points  out  how  one  may  "  fill  up  the 
measure  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  " — He  cannot  be  superseded.  Develop- 
ment must  consist  in  applying  in  new  departments  this  same  idea  of  God 
which  Christ  set  forth.  This  renewal  of  the  Incarnation  is  the  Christian's 
path  in  every  age  for  following  his  Master.  And  in  every  noble  man  or 
woman  we  have  known  we  see  a  partial  incarnation  of  Christ.  But  its  funda- 
mental lines  cannot  be  changed.  For  the  united  Christian  consciousness, 
perhaps  one  may  say,  the  consciousness  of  the  whole  world,  asserts  that 
Christ's  conception  of  God  is  the  deepest,  the  highest,  the  truest,  and  there- 
fore the  ultimate  conception.  There  are  some  things  in  which  finality  has 
been  reached.  Goodness  will  undoubtedly  show  itself  differently  under 
different  conditions ;  but  our  idea  of  the  nature  of  goodness  can  never  be 
reversed.  So  Christ's  conception  of  God  may  be  amplified,  but  it  can  never 
be  altered.     It  is  final.     He  is  the  only-begotten  Son  of  the  Father. 

Belief  in  God  depends  more  upon  moral  than  intellectual  grounds.  It 
is  founded  upon  the  insistence  of  the  soul  that  the  highest  intellectual  and 
moral  ideal  shall  be  real.  The  cogency  of  this  demand  will  therefore  be  in 
proportion  to  the  urgency  with  which  the  moral  pressure  is  felt.  So  belief 
in  the  authenticity  of  St.  John's  conception  of  Christ  will  depend  largely 
upon  whether  such  a  conception  is  demanded  by  one's  spiritual  nature.  To 
some  the  figure  which  appears  in  the  Synoptists  may  be  a  sufficient  explana- 
tion of  the  person  of  Christ  and  of  the  way  of  their  own  approach  to  God ; 
for,  whatever  view  is  taken,  these  are  inevitably  bound  together.  Others, 
to  whom  it  seems  that  there  must  of  necessity  have  been  a  human  side  in 
God  from  all  eternity,  that  this  must  of  necessity  have  become  at  some  time 
embodied  as  completely  as  is  possible  under  human  conditions,  that  this 
ideal  must  stand  in  vital  connection  with  the  life  of  their  own  souls  today — 
such  will  recognize  in  the  portrait  of  Christ,  drawn  by  the  author  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  with  the  purpose  of  presenting  to  the  soul  its  master,  features 
intrinsically  probable  as  those  of  the  historic  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  essen- 
tial to  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 


•  THE  AUTHOR  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL. 

BY    REV.    CIL.ARK    S.    BEARr)SI..KK,    I>.    D., 

Professor  of  Biblical  Dogmatics  and  Ethics,  Hartiokd  Theological 
Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Many  remarks,  in  apology  and  explanation,  call  for  utterance  as  I  take 
up  this  much-contended  theme.  But  for  these  there  is  now  no  time  or 
room.  You  good  people  will  appreciate  what  such  remarks  should  be,  and 
when  they  would  be  in  place. 

This  one  thing  needs,  however,  to  be  said,  and  I  hope  it  will  offend  no 
one.  It  is  not  going  to  be  my  primary  purpose  to  name  the  author  of  this 
Gospel,  or  to  tell  where  he  lived,  or  to  intimate  his  ancestry  or  training. 

Rather,  I  am  going  to  seek  to  gain  some  knowledge  about  this  author 
by  studying  his  work.  This  Fourth  Gospel  is  some  man's  monument.  It 
must  of  necessity  embody  some  evidences  and  disclosures  of  his  personal 
qualities.  In  some  true  sense  the  author's  portrait  must  be  outlined  in  his 
work.  His  heart  must  be  beating  there,  if  only  our  fingers  are  deft  enough 
to  find  its  pulse.  His  eye  must  be  glowing  there  continually,  if  only  our 
sight  is  keen  enough  to  catch  its  light.  His  immortal  being  must  leave 
traces  through  his  wonderful  work,  if  only  our  immortal  spirits  have  the 
requisite  affinity  for  sharing  in  his  fellowship.  Somewhere  within  this 
Fourth  Gospel  the  man  who  gave  it  shape  stands  beckoning  toward  our  eye. 
As  we  read  these  chapters,  the  very  presence  and  person  of  their  original 
penman  stand  nearer  than  we  think.  And  we  may  cherish  the  precious 
confidence  that  main  plain  outlines  of  his  noble  form  can  never  be  effaced. 
Where  this  Gospel  stands,  its  author  may  be  seen  immediately. 

Here  open  grand  suggestions.  At  best,  all  that  can  be  said  here  will 
have  to  be  mere  suggestion. 

In  the  first  place,  people  are  always  saying  that  this  Fourth  Gospel  is 
so  unlike  the  other  three.  True.  And  precisely  here  this  author  comes  to 
view.  He  is  unlike  those  other  men.  He  seems  to  have  had  his  attention 
fastened  upon  a  special  round  of  facts  in  the  Master's  life.  And  this  prone- 
ness  of  his  toward  just  these  things,  if  only  we  con  it  well,  is  deep  and  clear 
with  meaning.  Those  other  men  were  mainly  held  by  scenes  in  Galilee. 
This  man  was  mainly  held  by  scenes  in  Judah.  Here  is  a  dominant  note. 
And  in  this  dominant  note  ring  echoes  of  the  very  voice  of  him  who  brings 
this  closing  testimony  to  our  ears. 

And  for  one  feature  of  our  author  it  shows  that  he  was  selective.  He 
omitted  hosts  of  facts.  He  chose  with  carefulness,  just  these  few.  Ponder 
that  remark  of  his  in  20:30,  31  :  "Many  other  signs  did  Jesus     *     •     * 


*  Delivered  at  the  Eighth  Conference,  held  at  All  Saints  Memorial  Church,  May  ii,  1904. 

397 


398  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

But  these  are  written,  etc  ".  Selection,  Definite  selection.  Resolute  selec- 
tion. There  rings  a  purpose,  a  thoughtful  purpose.  This  yields  no  hint  of 
the  author's  name,  to  be  sure.  But  it  introduces  us  intimately  to  his  inner 
mind.  He  is  no  easy  rover.  He  prattles  no  distracted  and  distracting 
speech.  He  can  pick  and  weigh  and  lock  together  and  concentrate  what 
he  treats  and  what  he  says.     Think  of  this.     It  shows  a  master  instantly. 

Then  see  his  motive  :  "  These  are  written  that  ye  may  believe  ".  That 
ye  may  believe.  Faith.  Walk  around  that  word.  Dig  under  it.  Look 
within  it.  Trace  it  to  its  origin.  Who  said  that  ?  Here  is  a  man  who  aims 
to  engender  faith.  That  means  truth.  And  truth  that  stands  clear,  and 
rests  firm.  There  looms  a  sublime  proposition.  It  is  an  appeal  to  man's 
intelligence.  It  is  girt  with  mighty  confidence.  It  is  strong  with  an  unvary- 
ing patience.  Think  into  it.  There  rings  a  sovereign.  No  finer,  kinglier 
challenge  could  be  made  by  any  man.  The  man  who  poised  these  two 
verses  on  the  apex  of  his  work  was  a  master-builder.  Keep  thinking  of 
this.  "  That  ye  may  believe  ".  The  man  who  utters  that  brief  phrase,  as 
it  is  uttered  by  this  author,  needs  to  hold  a  steady  footing,  needs  to  have 
his  vision  clear,  his  conviction  sure,  and  the  parts  of  his  total  theme  well 
arranged,  as  he  voices  a  challenge  like  that.  No  outburst  of  his  being 
could  be  more  dignified,  no  undertaking  could  require  a  grander  momen- 
tum, no  proposition  could  show  a  finer  personal  character,  or  attest  a  loftier 
ambition. 

Read  those  two  verses  over  and  over.  More  features  of  the  author  are 
resting  there  than  you  suspect.  Feel  the  throbbing  of  his  heart  as  he  men- 
tions "  Jesus  ".  See  whither  his  fancy  soars  as  he  writes  down  "  Christ  ". 
Follow  up  the  far  rangings  of  his  thought  as  he  carves  that  phrase,  "  The 
Son  of  God  ".  Get  the  posture  and  energy  of  this  man  as  he  bows  down 
over  his  great  endeavor  and  writes :  "  These  things  I  have  set  down  in 
writing  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and 
that  believing  ye  may  have  life  in  His  name ".  Set  every  phrase  apart. 
Scan  every  word.  Then  combine  the  whole.  Press  into  this.  You  are 
drawing  near  the  warm  presence  of  the  very  man  you  seek. 

Then  put  close  beside  these  verses  those  verses  with  which  the  Gospel 
opens.  Explore  the  grand  interior  of  that  word  "  Word  ".  There  shines  a 
precious  stone.  None  finer  was  ever  found  in  all  the  Orient.  The  "Word  ", 
i.  e.,  the  very  voice  of  reason,  and  the  very  light  of  revelation.  Will  you 
properly  inspect  those  terms  ?  Then  hear  that  declaration  about  the 
"Word":  It  "was  in  the  beginning".  This  reasoned  revelation,  this 
revealed  reason  is  eternal.  What  an  affirmation  !  So  examine  the  spaces 
and  masses  which  bulk  and  spread  so  marvelously  in  that  Prologue.  The 
man  who  penned  that  Prologue  was  a  man  of  vision  and  a  man  of  thought. 
He  had  seen,  and  he  had  pondered.  It  was  a  master  who  framed  those 
ponderous  words  together.  There  is  in  that  Prologue  a  resume'  of  the 
earthly  life  of  Christ,  a  deep  reach  into  His  eternity,  an  outline  of  an  ulti- 
mate metaphysics,  a  true  philosophy,  a  thumbnail  compend  of  theology, 
and  an  ample  base  for  perfect  ethics.     These  are  superlative  affirmations, 


THE  AUTHOR  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.  399 

and  only  affirmations,  to  be  sure.  Time  fails  to  show  their  warrant.  But 
test  them.  Work  them  out.  And  again  you  will  begin  to  be  finely  aware 
of  the  very  presence  of  the  man  who  penned  this  Gospel. 

Then  meditate  for  a  little  upon  the  phrase,  "Without  llim  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made  ".  Stop  right  here.  What  ever  moved  this 
author  to  coin  this  claim  ?  Think  of  this.  Here  is  another  disclosure  of 
himself.  He  was  a  watchful,  thoughtful  man.  He  was  a  man  of  vision  and 
reason.  For  example:  He  saw  Jesus  turn  the  water  into  wine.  He  saw 
Jesus  feed  the  5,000  men.  Just  such  scenes  as  these  were  seen  by  all  the 
other  men.  But  this  man  pondered  as  he  gazed.  He  thought.  And  as  he 
pondered,  he  was  led  to  see  and  say,  "  Lo,  here  is  the  Creator  ". 

Study  in  a  similar  way  that  other  phrase :  "  I  am  the  light  of  the 
world".  Or  this:  "In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men". 
How  did  that  idea  and  figure  of  light  get  so  firm  a  place  in  this  Fourth 
Gospel  ?  It  is  another  mark  and  impress  of  its  author.  He  saw  Jesus  deal 
with  men.  He  heard  Him  talk.  He  saw  violence  fly  against  Him,  and 
observed  the  Master's  plain  and  strong  and  mild  replies.  And  as  he  saw 
he  thought.  And  as  he  thought  he  said :  "  Lo,  here  is  reason  streaming 
into  human  minds.  Here  is  original  and  ultimate  instruction.  Here  is  the 
light  that  lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the  world  ".  Do  you  see  ?  The 
man  who  penned  those  words  was  a  closely  watchful,  deeply  thoughtful, 
finely  docile,  truly  original  mind.  Suppose  it  be  allowed  that  man  cannot 
be  sure  about  his  name  or  nature,  place  or  training  or  daily  whereabouts. 
Despite  all  that  ignorance,  we  may  know  this  man.  He  lives  and  speaks 
right  before  our  eyes. 

And  I  would  say  that  these  last  mentioned  instances  are  characteristic 
of  this  Gospel  and  this  man.  The  other  Gospels  record  similar  deeds  of 
Christ.  But  they  do  nothing  more.  But  this  man,  who  pens  this  fourth 
account,  takes  from  those  common  actions  a  chosen  few,  and  thinks  of 
them,  and  grows  into  them,  and  gets  the  weight  of  them,  and  sees  their  size, 
and  penetrates  to  their  philosophy.  He  peers  and  ponders  till  he  sees  them 
whole,  till  he  finds  their  meaning,  till  he  stands  within  eternity.  Such  was 
the  man  who  wrote  this  Gospel. 

Another  introduction  to  this  author  can  be  gained  by  noting  all  he  says 
about  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  this  regard  he  stands  grandly  unique.  Once 
Jesus  said:  "If  any  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me  and  drink,  and  out  of  his 
belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water  ".  The  author  of  this  Gospel  caught 
that  great  saying  and  wrote  it  down.  And  he  knew  well  what  he  was  doing. 
And  then  he  got  another  saying, — that  one,  uttered  when  Thomas  was  absent, 
where  Jesus  breathed  on  them  and  said:  "Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost". 
The  author  of  this  Gospel  watched  that  little  drama  through  and  made  a 
record  of  it.  And  in  those  wonderful  conferences  of  Jesus  and  His  friends 
in  chapters  14-16,  he  has  put  down  repeatedly  at  the  sharp  point  of  his 
accurate  pen  the  Lord's  allusions  to  the  Spirit.  Mind  this.  This  author 
made  a  note  of  all  of  them  and  put  them  in  his  book.  Read  them  over  and 
over  if  you  really  seek  to  know  this  man.     For  here  is  precious  aid,  I    feel 


400  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

sure.  The  author  of  this  Fourth  Gospel  had  deep  conceptions  of  what 
Jesus  meant  and  did  when  He  promised  and  imparted  the  Holy  Ghost.  The 
mighty  energies  of  that  infinite  Holy  Spirit  of  wisdom  and  grace  and  conso- 
lation wrought  freely  and  for  long  upon  his  plastic  nature,  he  freely  sub- 
mitting all  the  while  to  the  silent  transformation,  until  its  fruitage  ripened 
in  this  golden  record  which  we  read.  Through  that  inworking  Spirit,  all  the 
Master's  word  and  life  were  inwrought  into  this  author's  being.  And  this 
Gospel  is  the  living  issue.  The  Gospel  unfolds  the  author  just  as  truly  as 
it  unfolds  the  Christ.  And  I  will  put  in  right  here  that,  if  I  know  at  all  what 
Christ's  Gospel  actually  is,  it  is  in  this  Fourth  Gospel.  And  it  is  all  here. 
And  in  its  record  is  the  very  soul  of  the  Christian  honor  of  its  author.  To 
the  very  core  it  is  genuine,  authentic,  true.  The  penman  of  these  para- 
graphs was  inspired.  The  Holy  Spirit,  the  boon  of  Christ,  reigned  within 
his  life  and  work.  He  drank  deep  draughts  from  the  spring  of  life,  and 
hence  he  wrote  this  Gospel. 

Another  sign  of  who  and  what  he  is  appears  in  that  same  scene  when 
Thomas  was  away.  Read  it  through  and  get  the  drift  of  that  statement  of 
the  Lord:  "As  the  Father  hath  sent  Me,  so  do  I  send  you".  There  is 
apostleship.  Tarry  here  till  you  get  the  force  and  outlook  of  that  word. 
Then  test  this  Gospel  by  that  thought.  Read  also  this :  "  You  have  not 
chosen  Me,  but  I  have  chosen  you,  etc.".  The  man  who  wrote  this  book 
was  a  man  who  felt  that  mission.  His  impulse  hailed  from  Christ  and  God, 
and  it  aimed  at  all  humanity.  If  ever  an  apostle  of  Christ  has  been  seen  by 
men,  he  is  the  author  of  this  book.  This  is  really  a  taking  clue  to  his 
identity.  And  it  runs  all  through  this  Fourth  Gospel,  if  there  is  any  honor 
in  it. 

Now  study  the  relation  of  events  and  discourses  in  this  Gospel. 
Remember  the  events — those  miracles,  those  criticisms  and  challenges — and 
then  remember  the  addresses  that  foUow^.  For  example  take  chapters  5  and 
6.  Here  is  a  phenomenon  of  which  much  is  being  made.  Study  this.  Men 
say  the  discourses  wander  and  get  lost  in  unearthly  metaphysics.  But  look. 
See  how  simple  those  discourses  are.  They  are  profound,  indeed.  Yes. 
But  they  are  simple.  And  they  do  grow  out  of  the  event.  They  really  do. 
They  are  expository  of  the  inner  meaning  of  the  event.  They  are  comments, 
a  master's  comments.  Examine  this.  You  are  as  capable  of  doing  this  as 
anyone.  You  search  and  see.  The  fact  is,  event  and  discourse  cohere. 
One  produces  the  other.     One  rises  from  the  other,  simply,  naturally. 

What  does  this  mean  touching  the  author  ?  Why,  it  means  that  in  the 
writer  of  this  Gospel,  we  have  a  man  who  hung  about  Christ  with  an 
exquisite  insight  and  attentiveness,  and  that  he  was  peculiarly  prone  to  be 
close  by  the  Lord  when  He  was  drawing  eternal  meanings  out  of  common 
things.     Here  is  a  disciple  who  saw  the  Saviour's  philosophy  of  things. 

Test  this  by  an  honest  study  of  the  word  "  Son"  in  5  :  19,  and  "love" 
in  5  :  20,  and  "  bread  "  in  6 :  33.  Test  it  in  that  ninth  chapter.  Study  into 
these  suggestions.  Jesus  did  deep  thinking  all  along  there.  Follow  it  if 
you  can.     Keep  your  hold  of  the  event.     Traverse  through  its  discourse  and 


THE  AUTHOU  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.  401 

you  will  find  a  marvelous  characteristic  of  this  author.  He  can  take  an  item 
that  is  in  itself  an  incident,  such  as  the  evangelists  would  merely  name,  and 
show  how  Jesus'  mind  adjusted  itself  to  that  item's  deepest  bearings. 

Now  John  is  full  of  this  sort  of  thing.  Do  not  refuse  to  study  it  out. 
Get  into  his  simplicity.  Get  into  his  profundity.  The  fact  is,  this  writer 
stands  at  once  the  frfend  and  the  follower,  the  peer  and  the  leader  of  the 
plainest  and  the  most  finished  men  of  our  race.  He  may  be  classed,  and 
properly  classed  among  the  stoics  and  the  gnostics,  the  artists  and  the 
rustics  of  the  ages.  Wonderfully  plain,  wonderfully  deep.  I  praise  heaven 
that  there  was  one  who  had  the  eye  to  see  the  Messiah's  discernment  of  the 
mighty  meanings  in  common  things. 

One  could  well  spend  a  whole  afternoon  verifying  this.  I  have  alluded 
to  that  impotent  man  in  John  5.  There  is  a  cure  just  such  as  you  find  in 
the  other  Gospels  without  a  comment.  Its  Sabbath  desecration,  too,  is  simi- 
lar to  repeated  synoptic  scenes.  There  is  an  independent,  authoritative  act 
of  love.  Now  see  how  deep  thoughts  unfold.  Out  of  the  cure,  an  allusion 
to  the  Sabbath.  Out  of  that,  an  allusion  to  the  Father.  Out  of  that,  some 
words  about  the  Son.  Out  of  that,  some  words  about  Love.  Out  of  that, 
some  words  about  Life  and  Judgment.  Out  of  that,  some  words  about 
Faith,  and  so  on.  Now  think;  whither  have  you  run?  From  that  poor, 
impotent  man  by  the  pool,  you  have  almost  instantly  traversed  infinite 
realms,  until  at  the  end  you  stand  face  to  face  with  the  ultimate  realities  of 
personal  being  in  God  and  man  alike.  Here  is  a  sublime  and  impressive 
trait  of  the  author  of  this  work. 

Another  study  worth  the  while  of  any  man  is  the  search  lo  see  how 
many  sides,  how  many  different  sides  of  the  Master  this  author  has  defined. 
It  is  a  most  wonderful  study.     But  there  is  no  room  for  its  examination  here. 

Still  another  phase  of  this  Gospel,  reflecting  finely  on  the  author's 
qualities,  is  its  quality  as  a  piece  of  literature.  There  is  high  art  here,  art 
of  the  finest  type, — literary  art.  Look  at  it  as  a  drama.  Study  its  personnel. 
Study  its  scenery.     Study  it  as  a  tragedy.     Mark  its  unity. 

Then  try  to  grasp  the  whole  as  a  unified  portrait  of  Christ.  You  know 
it  is  possibly  this  same  author  that  drew  that  picture  of  Christ  in  the  closing 
book  of  our  canon.  That  picture  shows  rapt  vision  and  deep  meditation, 
and  you  have  the  substance  of  it  all  in  this  book. 

Then  conceive  the  whole  Gospel  as  a  composition  of  fine  music,  a 
symphony.  Get  its  sweet,  appealing,  persuasive  melodies;  get  its  dreadful 
discords.  Move  out  into  the  swing  of  its  triumphant  harmonies.  It  is  a 
majestic  work  in  range  and  balancing. 

And  now  try  to  make  some  clear  description  of  this  man — the  author  of 
this  book. 

He  must  have  had  a  deep  and  limpid  eye.  He  must  have  had  a  master 
intellect.  He  must  have  had  a  mighty  heart.  He  must  have  had  the 
sobriety  and  poise  of  a  philosopher.  He  must  have  had  a  fine  sincerity. 
His  mind  must  have  been  as  spacious  and  pure  as  the  vault  of  heaven. 
You  may  hear  him  in  his  music,  for  it  will  never  grow  mute.     You  may  see 


402  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

him  in  his  portrait  of  his  Lord,  for  there  are  tracings  of  himself  that  will 
never  fade. 

Do  you  ask  who  he  was  ?  Well  he  must  have  been  one  who  nestled 
near  to  his  Lord;  I  think  he  must  have  leaned  upon  His  breast.  He  must 
have  imbibed  his  Master's  warmest  affections ;  I  think  he  might  be  termed 
the  beloved.  He  did  absorb  great  draughts  of  his  Master's  teachings ;  truly 
he  was  a  disciple.  He  did  follow  and  obey  the  Master's  impulse  to  go  and 
tell  what  he  had  seen  and  heard;  I  think  he  was  an  apostle.  And  he  must 
have  pondered  these  things  many  a  long  year ;  I  think  he  was  an  aged 
follower  when  he  wrote.  And  if  you  ask  his  name,  I  must  reply  that  most 
fittingly  it  would  be  woven  out  of  two  Hebrew  words — Grace  and  Jehovah — 
Jehovah's  grace.     Johannes,  in  the  Greek;  in  the  English,  John. 

Such  is  the  author  of  this  Fourth  Gospel.  A  free  soul,  of  a  regal  pur- 
pose, sincere,  mature,  refined,  profound,  artistic,  spiritual,  an  apostle,  a 
disciple,  a  beloved  friend,  an  exponent  of  Jehovah's  love, — John. 


APPENDIX 


*  REMARKS  AT  THE  BUSINESS  MEN'S  LUNCH. 
JANUARY  13,  1904. 


MR.  LITTLEFIELD.  "Gkntlemen: — I  think  that  business  men  honestly 
and  sincerely  desire  to  know  the  truth,  so  far  as  my  exjxirience  goes.  I  am 
reminded  in  that  connection  of  a  little  church  in  Western  New  York  that  had  for 
its  principal  supporter  a  David  Harum.  A  new  minister  was  called  to  the  church 
and  in  his  first  sermon  he  preached  pretty  vigorously  against  certain  evils,  and  the 
good  deacons  became  alarmed  and  feared  that  Brother  Harum,  who  was  not  a 
member  of  the  church  but  a  large  contributor  to  its  financial  support,  might  be 
very  much  offended  and  withhold  his  aid.  And  so  they  told  the  pastor  the  circum- 
stances. Soon  after  the  pastor  met  David  on  the  street  and  he  took  occasion  to  say 
to  him  that  he  certainly  had  no  reference  to  him  in  his  sermon.  'That  is  all  right, 
Parson',  said  he,  '  it  is  a  mighty  poor  sermon  that  don't  hit  me  pretty  hard  some- 
where. Go  ahead  and  preach  what  you  believe  to  be  the  truth  and  I  shall  be  satis- 
fied'. I  think  that  is  the  attitude  of  business  men  generally  toward  the  truth. 
They  desire  to  have  thoughtful  and  free  expression  of  it. 

"  Now  we  are  very  fortunate  to  have  with  us  today  a  number  of  men  who  have 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  study  of  theological  questions.  They  are  what  we  lawyers 
call  experts  in  their  line;  and  one  of  these  gentlemen  will  address  us  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  '  Indebtedness  of  the  Churches  to  the  Conference  Speakers  '.  I  need  not 
say  that  this  is  an  indebtedness  that  cannot  be  discharged  in  dollars  and  cents:  an 
indebtedness  far  deeper  and  broader  than  pecuniary  indebtedness  is  involved  here, 
and  I  am  sure  we  all  recognize  it.  But  I  wish  to  take  occasion  now  to  express 
my  thanks  to  the  gentlemen  present  and  absent  who  have  so  generously  and  freely 
given  their  financial  assistance  and  made  it  possible  for  us  to  enjoy  this  lunch  and 
these  Conferences. 

"It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  present  at  this  time  Rev.  Dr.  Carter  E.  Cate, 
Chairman  of  the  Conference  Committee". 

DR.  CATE. 

"  Mr.  Chairman  and  Fkllow  Citizens  : — 1  am  sure  we  all  tee!  that  it  is  a 
very  great  distinction  for  Providence  to  have  these  successful  Conferences  held 
here;  and  we  feel  that  we  are  privileged  in  this  above  most  cities.  We  are  making 
these  Conferences  a  focusing  point  for  the  best  thought  and  the  deepest  experiences 
of  the  leaders  of  New  England  and  beyond.  And  I  am  sure  it  would  be  unfort- 
unate, if  some  one  did  not  express  better  than  I  am  expressing,  our  deep  and  sin- 
cere appreciation.  And  I  refer  to  the  gentlemen  who  have  come  to  us  today  as 
well  as  those  who  have  addressed  us  in  the  past  Conferences.  We  have  been  very 
fortunate  in  the  readiness  with  which  the  speakers  have  followed  along 
the  distinctive  ideas  of  these  Conferences;  the  idea  of  constructive  work,  the  idea 
of   interpretation.     They   have   lifted  up  the   whole   truth    in  a    very  clear  manner. 


*  A  very  pleasant  feature  of  the  January  Conference  was  the  I'usines'i  Men's  Lunch,  held  at  the 
Trocadero  between  the  morning  and  afternoon  sessions.  Several  of  the  Conference  speakers  were  in 
attendance  and  made  brief  addresses.  Hon.  Naihan  W.  Littlefield  presided.  About  150  of  the  businet* 
and   professional    men    of   the   city    were    present.     The   occasion    was   greatly   enjoyeil. 

405 


4o6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

They  have  made  the  Conferences  immensely  inspiring  and  helpful  to  us.  We  only 
regret  that  we  have  not  been  able  to  reach  a  larger  audience.  We  must  circulate 
the  reports,  put  them  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  by  inviting  and  urging 
the  young  men  and  women  of  our  churches,  make  a  special  effort  to  bring  them 
under  the  inspiration  and  help  of  these  Conferences.  They  combine  all  the  quali- 
ties that  ought  to  command  the  respect  and  interest  of  the  young  men  and 
women  in  our  churches — scholarship,  personal  character,  culture,  all  these  qual- 
ities are  there  which  taken  together  make  them  unusually  inspiring  and  uplift- 
ing". 

MR.  LITTLEFIELD.—"  The  criticism  used  to  be  made  on  the  religious 
schools  and  seminaries  of  our  country  that  they  turned  out  men  who  were  deep  in 
the  knowledge  of  books  and  literature,  but  did  not  have  a  knowledge  of  men  and  of 
life.  I  think  that  criticism  has  ceased  to  be  applicable  to  the  work  of  the  sem- 
inaries of  our  day,  and  in  man}'  ways  I  think  a  great  deal  has  been  done  to 
bring  the  student  into  touch  with  real  life.  One  of  the  best  seminaries  today  is  the 
Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  and  we  shall  now  have  the  pleasure  of  listening 
to  one  of  its  Professors  on  'The  Service  of  the  Seminaries  to  the  Churches'.  I 
take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  Professor  Jacobus  ". 

PROFESSOR  JACOBUS. 

"Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens: — I  have  sometimes  been  asked  the 
relation  of  the  seminary  to  the  churches,  and  I  have  never  failed  to  answer  that 
question  by  saying  that  the  relation  of  the  seminary  to  the  churches  is  the  relation 
of  the  seminaries  to  their  students,  because  it  is  manifestly  impossible  that  an  insti- 
tution should  be  established  to  prepare  men  for  the  ministry  which  would  not 
measure  its  relationship  to  that  ministry  by  its  relationship  to  the  affairs  of  the 
church.  Times  have  changed  in  these  last  twenty-five  years.  I  imagine  as  long 
ago  as  that  Hartford  Seminary  would  have  been  considered  an  ultra-conservative 
institution ;  and  there  are  some  who  consider  it  such  today,  and  some  who  con- 
sider it  ultra-liberal.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  it  does  not  stand  upon  either  a  con- 
servative or  a  radical  basis.  It  stands  upon  a  basis  for  which  it  was  chosen,  the 
work  of  a  constructive  thinking,  a  thinking  which  brings  a  man  face  to  face  with 
the  truth,  and  directs  him  in  the  best  way  of  seeing  both  sides  of  it,  and  then 
trusts  him  to  his  manhood  to  find  his  way  out.  There  are  a  great  many  of  our  men 
who  do  not  find  their  way  out  as  we  wish  they  would,  but  there  are  many  who  do. 
But  we  have  the  inestimable  self-satisfaction  of  saying  with  reference  to  every  man 
who  goes  out,  '  He  is  what  he  has  made  himself,  and  not  what  we  have  straight- 
jacketed  him  to  be '. 

"  We  have  kept  out  of  controversy  because  we  have  held  that  Christ  has 
entrusted  us  to  train  these  men  to  know  His  truth  through  knowing  Him,  and 
through  knowing  Christ  to  bring  His  truth  to  the  hearts  of  men;  so  that  the 
relationship  of  Hartford  Seminary  to  its  students  lies  in  this  one  great  ambition 
and  desire,  that  she  shall  so  impress  her  students  that  in  that  impression  she 
shall  impresS'upon  them  Jesus  Christ.  Manifestly,  gentlemen,  that  is  not  possible 
unless  there  be  impressed  upon  us  who  sit  in  the  Professors'  chairs  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  And  I  stand  before  you  with  a  consciousness  born  of  the  humility  of 
experience  when  I  say  that  the  yearning  desire  of  those  who  sit  around  the  faculty 
table  at  Hartford  is  that  Christ  shall  be  so  impressed  upon  us  that  our  impres- 
sion upon  our  students  can  be  nothing  less  than  the  impress  of  Him.  That  is 
the  relationship  and  the  service  of  the  seminary  to  the  church  ". 


REMARKS  AT  THE  BUSINESS  MEN'S  LUNCH.         407 

MR.  LITTLEFIELD. — "  (^lite  a  number  ot"  vears  apo,  so  inanv  years  aj^o 
that  I  will  not  tell  you  how  many  lest  it  might  appear  that  the  gentleman  upon 
whom  I  am  about  to  call  has  passed  what  has  been  termed  the  dead-line  of  titty, 
there  was  a  young  man  in  Phillips  Andover  Academy  in  the  best  class  that  ever 
went  out  from  that  academy,  who  is  present  here  today  as  a  speaker.  It  was  the 
best  class  because  Mr.  Palmer  and  myself  happened  to  be  members  of  that  class.  I 
now  take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  to  this  body  of  business  men  my  friend  and 
classmate,  Rev.  Frederic  Palmer,  who  will  speak  upon  '  Church  Unity'". 

MR.  PALMER. 

"  Mr.  Presiuknt  and  Gentlemen  : — Your  president  has  introduced  me  to 
speak  upon  '  Church  Unity '.  And  in  introducing  my  brief  remarks  I  would  like 
to  ask  what  does  one  want  more  than  to  look  upon  this  assembly,  for  a  living  pic- 
ture creates  a  greater  impression  than  a  picture  of  words.  I  can  say  nothing  more 
impressive  than  to  ask  you  to  look  around  you.  Every  one  of  us  is  heartily  loyal 
to  his  own  church,  and  yet  coming  here  we  find  a  union  that  is  underlying  the  dif- 
ferences of  the  outside.  It  seems  to  me  that  these  Conferences  are  a  very  remark- 
able indication  of  the  way  in  which  the  unity  of  the  church  is  being  worked  out. 
This  is  a  kind  of  guage  which  tells  us  the  point  that  unity  has  reached.  It  tells  u^ 
also  what  we  have  not  reached.  The  old  idea  was  that  of  uniformity,  but  that  was 
a  mistake.  For  the  moment  you  try  to  impress  uniformity  upon  men,  that  moment 
you  increase  the  difficulty  of  the  problem.  Whatever  church  unity  may  be  it  is  not 
uniformity. 

"  I  think  we  have  also  come  to  the  conclusion  that  uniformity  is  not  desirable, 
because  we  are  all  seeing  that  beneath  our  differences  there  is  a  response  to  certain 
inherent  and  necessary  differences  in  human  nature.  I  am  glad  to  think  that  there 
is  a  Roman  Catholic  Church  near  mine  that  is  full  every  Sunday  morning.  I  do 
not  desire  to  see  it  closed ;  if  it  was  closed,  I  do  not  think  its  members  would  come 
to  mv  church,  or  to  any  of  the  other  churches.  It  is  ministering  something  to  that 
congregation,  and  we  each  are  ministering  to  something  in  human  nature;  one,  it 
may  be,  to  the  social  side,  anothe*-  to  the  spiritual,  and  another  to  the  intellectual 
side  of  human  nature,  but  each  making  its  contribution.  What  we  are  coming  to 
hope  is  that  we  mav  get  the  religious  ideas  of  each  one  of  these  churches  and  pre- 
sent them  to  the  community  as  a  whole.  At  a  meeting  in  Boston  one  of  the  speak- 
ers said,  '  If  you  could  get  Methodist  fire  under  Baptist  water,  you  could  get  enough 
steam  to  run  all  the  Presbyterian  machinery  throughout  the  United  States'. 

"  I  think  we  are  recognizing  that  we  have  a  great  degree  of  common  unity  at 
present.  I  wish  the  unreality  of  many  of  our  differences  was  not  so  much  over- 
looked. We  do  business  together,  we  play  golf  together,  and  on  the  great  and 
serious  matters  of  life  we  come  together  and  unite  with  each  other ;  but  when  we 
enter  the  door  of  the  church  there  is  some  strange  difference  there  that  we  do  not 
recognize  anywhere  else.  This  is  conventional ;  we  are  doing  it  from  past  example, 
and  are  allowing  it  to  rob  us  of  a  great  good.  When  a  person  can  jest  about  a  sub- 
ject, that  shows  that  it  is  not  fundamental  with  him.  When  Phillips  Brooks  was 
rector  of  Trinity  Church  he  asked  Professor  Park  to  come  and  visit  him.  He 
wrote  that  he  could  not  come,  for,  as  he  said,  '  I  have  just  learned  from  an  Episco- 
pal clergyman  that  I  have  not  been  properly  baptized'.  '  Come',  Dr.  Brooks  wrote 
in  reply,  '  I  have  a  little  room  in  a  remote  part  of  the  house  which  I  keep  for  just 
such  cases  '.  When  men  can  talk  of  their  differences  in  that  way,  you  may  be  sure 
they  are  not  real.  In  one  of  the  little  towns  out  west  some  years  ago,  a  new  clergy- 
man had  gone  in  there  who  was  a  ritualist,  and  after  a  short  time  he  was  introduc<-d 


4o8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

to  the  Methodist  minister,  an  aged,  saintly  man.  In  the  course  of  the  conversa- 
tion the  young  clergyman  said,  '  Of  course  I  recognize  you  as  a  gentleman,  though 
[  cannot  regard  you  as  a  clergyman  '.  And  the  other  replied,  '  Of  course  I  recog- 
nize you  as  a  clergyman,  though  I  cannot  regard  you  as  a  gentleman  '.  What  is 
the  difference  between  those  two  incidents,  the  one  between  Professor  Park  and 
Phillips  Brooks ;  the  other  between  the  ritualistic  clergyman  and  the  old  saint? 
There  is  a  difference  as  wide  as  heaven  is  from  earth.  The  difference  between 
the  first  two  men  was  but  slight,  but  the  difference  between  the  other  two  was 
wide.  The  difference  is  one  of  spirit,  the  different  spirit  of  the  men,  and  that  is 
the  thing  which  constitutes  the  difference  between  churches.  It  is  not  so  much 
ecclesiastical  difference  as  a  difference  of  spirit  that  divides  men.  Now,  wherever 
we  can  recognize  a  common  spirit,  there  we  have  unity ;  and  that  is  where  we  have 
been  making  the  greatest  advances  during  the  last  few  years.  It  is  not  so  much 
that  you  can  call  men  by  the  same  name  and  they  will  be  all  of  a  kind,  as  that  the 
men  of  one  spirit  in  a  given  church  are  like  the  men  in  the  other  churches  of  the 
same  spirit.  It  is  the  spirit  that  makes  the  difference,  and  that  is  the  important 
element  here.  It  is  not  a  man's  profession  in  the  church  which  he  belongs  to ;  it 
is.  Is  he  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ  ?  That  is  what  is  important  and  funda- 
mental. So  of  any  church.  The  question  is  not  primarily  of  the  validity  of  its 
orders ;  it  is.  Does  this  church  bring  men  to  Christ  and  fill  them  with  His  spirit  ? 
Recognizing  this  as  fundamental,  we  can  look  upon  the  members  of  our  churches 
and  yet  recognize  the  something  deeper  and  higher  than  their  church  membership. 
"  Now,  you  here  in  Providence  are  taking  the  second  step  in  Christian  unity. 
It  is  impossible  that  we  should  ever  come  together  on  the  ground  of  external  unity, 
— any  one  form  of  worship,  or  any  one  organization,  or  any  one  creed.  That  is 
impossible,  and  it  is  undesirable  that  it  should  be  so.  But  we  are  uniting  on 
matters  of  practical  work;  on  that  basis  we  are  coming  together.  This  is  so  in  my 
own  town.  Together  we  are  seeing  that  temperance  legislation  is  carried  out,  and 
the  charity  of  the  town  taken  care  of.  Our  town  is  being  cared  for  as  if  it  were  one 
parish.  We  have  been  taking  the  first  step ;  you  have  been  taking  the  first  step. 
But  it  is  a  second  step  when  we  come  together  and  study  the  question.  There  is 
one  phrase  in  the  service  of  my  church  which  I  always  sa}-  with  the  greatest  satis- 
faction, because  it  seems  to  me  to  give  the  key  to  the  situation.  We  pray  that  we 
may  hold  '  the  unitv  of  the  spirit,  in  the  bond  of  peace,  and  in  righteousness  of 
life'". 

MR.  LITTLEFIELD. — "  We  have  with  us  today  a  gentlemen  who  has  been 
foremost  in  organizing  the  party  that  is  about  to  leave  our  shores  for  the  Holy 
Land.  I  understand  that  during  this  trip  among  other  places  of  interest  the  party 
will  visit  Jerusalem  and  Ephesus,  the  earlier  and  the  later  homes  of  St.  John,  and  I 
am  sure  we  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  him  something  of  the  purposes  and  plans  of 
this  pilgrimage  to  the  most  interesting  shrines  of  the  Christian  world.  I  have  great 
pleasure  in  introducing  Mr.  A.  B.  McCrillis,  of  Providence". 

MR.  McCRILLIS. 

"  Mr.  Chairman  and  Fellow  Citizens  : — I  am  glad  to  have  the  opportunity 
of  making  a  brief  statement  in  regard  to  the  approaching  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Land.  The  International  Sunday  School  Convention,  at  its  meeting  in  Denver, 
appointed  a  committee  of  three  to  arrange  for  a  World's  Sunday  School  Convention 
at  Jerusalem  next  April. 

"One  of  the  finest  steamers  afloat,  the  'Grosser  Kurfurst'  of  the  North 
German  line,  has  been  chartered  for  a  trip  of  72  days. 


REMARKS  AT  THE  BUSINESS  MEN'S  IMNCH.         409 

"  We  shall  laiui  at  Madeira,  Gibraltar,  Algiers,  Malta  ami  many  other  Mediter- 
ranean ports,  and  make  extended  stops  at  the  five  great  cities  that  have  each  been 
recognizee^  in  turn  as  the  World's  Capitals. — Athens,  Constantinople,  Jerusalem, 
Cairo  and  Rome. 

"The  company  will  be  made  up  wholly  of  representative  persons  who  are  in 
hearty  sympathy  with  the  great  cause  we  represent.  Already  more  than  800  dele- 
gates have  been  booked,  31  from  Rhode  Island  and  some  from  every  state  and 
territory  in  the  Union,  and  all  but  two  of  the  provinces  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

"It  is  already  known  that  there  will  be  representatives  from  Mexico  and  one 
or  more  of  the  West  India  Islands  ;  and  a  number  of  missionaries  who  have  been 
on  furlough  in  this  country  will  return  to  their  fields  with  us.  taking  in  the  con- 
vention en  route. 

"This  is  not  in  any  sense  to  be  a  pleasure  excursion.  Nearly  200  ministers 
are  already  booked  for  the  trip,  and  the  rest  of  the  company  consists  of  Sunday 
School  superintendents,  teachers,  and  earnest  Bible  students,  who  are  making  the 
trip  that  they  may  better  understand  the  Bible  from  studying  it  on  the  spot  where 
so  much  of  it  was  written  and  so  many  of  its  scenes  enacted. 

"  We  shall  cross  and  recross  several  times  the  routes  of  Paul  and  John  in  the 
Mediterranean,  passing  the  Isle  of  Patmos,  and  spending  a  day  in  Smyrna,  one  of 
the  cities  to  which  John  wrote,  and  where  Polycarp,  John's  disciple,  received  his 
Martyr's  crown,  and  where  his  authenticated  tomb  still  remains,  a  tangible  con- 
nection between  the  time  of  John  and  our  day,  connecting  the  first  and  twentieth 
centuries.  We  shall  spend  a  day  at  Ephesus  distinguished  by  its  theatre  and  the 
temple  of  Diana,  but  still  more  by  the  residence  and  sufferings  of  John  and  Paul. 

"  The  ship  is  to  be  our  home  from  our  start  till  our  return.  We  shall  have 
continuous  convention  work  in  all  departments  of  Sunday  School  training,  with 
daily  lectures  by  some  of  the  foremost  Bible  students  in  the  world. 

"  At  the  same  time  that  we  go  from  America,  another  palatial  steamer  will  start. 

from  England  for  the  same  destination,  with  a  company  that  will  be  at   least  the 

equal  of  ours   in    its   scholarly  attainments  and   its   enthusiastic  interest    in   Bible 

study. 

"  It  is  already  known  that  a  great  many  missionaries  and  Christian  workers  are 

coming  up  to  the  convention  from  all  over  the  East,  from   many  points  in  Europe, 

Asia,  Africa  and  Australia. 

"  Seventeen  days  will  be  spent  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  a  horse-back  trip  taken 
the  entire  length  of  the  land  from  Damascus  to  Hebron. 

"Our  convention  tent  will  be  pitched  at  the  foot  of  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
within  a  few  hundred  feet  of  Calvary  and  our  Saviour's  tomb. 

"There  will  be  sectional  meetings  of  great  interest  at  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
Shechem,  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  many  other  places  closely  associated  with  the 
life  and  work  of  our  Lord  and  the  disciples. 

"  We  shall  visit  the  excavations  in  progress  by  various  exploration  societies  al 
Ephesus,  Gezer,  Heliopolis  and  Rome. 

"The  American  Consul  General  at  Constantinople  has  secured  for  us  special 
privileges  in  the  city  of  Constantinople  and  special  protection  in  our  trip  through 
the  Land. 

"  The  great  Ottoman  Museum  in  Constantinople  and  the  great  Boulak  Museum 
in  Cairo,  and  the  priceless  collections  of  the  Vatican  and  other  museums  in  Rome, 
are  all  to  be  thrown  open  to  us. 

"My  time  will  not  permit  more  than  this  brief  reference  to  a  few  of  the  prom- 
inent points  covered  on  our  cruise.     I   should  be  glad  to  tell  you  of  the  arrange- 


41  o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ments  for  the  great  convention  and  for  valuable  side  trips.  I  can  only  say  it  is 
the  opportunity  of  a  lifetime  and  every  one  who  can  should  avail  himself  of  the 
privilege  ". 

MR.  LITTLEFIELD.— "  I  wish  at  this  point  to  call  upon  Rev.  Dr.  Charles 
M.  Melden,  Pastor  of  the  Mathewson  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  who 
will  address  us  upon  the  '  Relation  of  Christ  to  the  Church'". 

DR.    MELDEN. 

"  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  : — It  is  said  that  Carlj'le  and  Emerson  were 
walking  one  day  together  during  Emerson's  visit  to  Scotland,  and  during  their 
conversation  Carlyle,  pointing  to  a  church  in  the  distance,  said,  '  If  Christ  had  not 
died,  that  church  would  never  have  stood  there  and  we  would  not  have  been  walk- 
ing here  together  now.'  And  that  is  emphatically  true.  If  Christ  had  not  lived 
and  died  we  would  not  be  here  in  this  delightful  fellowship  to-da}^  And  it  seems 
to  me,  as  the  last  speaker  has  so  admirably  said,  that  the  secret  of  Christian  unity 
is  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ.  Our  religion,  if  it  is  anything,  is  loyalty  to  Christ, 
a  personal  relationship,  and  everyone  of  us  stands  true  to  our  profession,  if  we  are 
true  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  great  Founder  of  our  Church.  And  in  proportion  as  we 
are  true  to  Him  and  loyal  to  Him  will  we  be  loyal  and  true  to  each  other  in  delight- 
ful. Christian  fellowship.  This  I  conceive  to  be  the  relation  of  Christ  to  His 
Church.  He  is  the  Head  of  His  Church.  He  fills  it  with  His  spirit.  The  Church 
is  bound  to  Him  by  ties  of  personal  loyally.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  Church 
is  losing  its  grip  on  men.  I  don't  believe  it.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  in  working 
men's  assemblies  the  name  of  Christ  is  applauded  and  the  name  of  the  Church 
hissed.  I  do  not  believe  that  this  is  true.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  these  assemblies 
always  represent  the  working  men  of  our  country.  I  believe  that  the  Church  has 
its  support  very  largely  from  the  laboring  classes.  But  I  want  to  say  that  if  the 
name  of  Christ  is  applauded,  and  the  name  of  the  Church  is  hissed  in  any  country 
or  land,  I  believe  it  is  because  we  do  not  represent  the  spirit  and  characteristics  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  faithfully  to  men.  And  it  is  our  business  as  members  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  to  show  our  loyalty  to  Him  by  reflecting  as  far  as  possible 
His  spirit  and  characteristics  in  our  lives  ". 

MR.  LITTLEFIELD.—"  It  is  said  that  Dean  Stanley  was  once  calling  upon 
an  eccentric  man  who  had  arranged  around  his  reception  room  a  large  number  of 
mirrors,  and  as  Dean  Stanley  entered  the  reception  room  he  looked  calmly  around 
upon  the  multiplied  reflections  of  his  form  and  remarked,  'A  very  respectable  col- 
lection of  the  clergy '.  We  are  all  familiar  with  the  fact  that  a  book  has  recently 
been  written  entitled  the  'Ascent  of  the  Soul',  and  probably  some  of  us  know  the 
author  of  that  book.  Recently  this  order  came  from  England,  the  edition  having 
been  exhausted  there,  '  Please  send  us  a  thousand  copies  of  Dr.  Bradford's  souls'. 
This  was  the  multiplication  of  the  mirrors  as  applied  to  the  Dean  of  Congregation- 
alism, Dr.  Amory  H.  Bradford.  We  shall  now  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing  from 
Dr.  Bradford  on  '  The  Light  of  the  World  in  Japan '  ". 

DR.  BRADFORD. 

"  Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  : — I  do  not  know  how  that  cable  found  its 
way  to  Providence,  but  I  shall  never  cease  to  be  surprised  at  anything  which  I  find 
in  this  citj' .  Our  time  is  nearly  up,  and  I  shall  detain  you  with  my  remarks  for 
but  a  single  moment.  Your  subject,  as  it  is  now  stated  sounds  differently  from 
what  it  did  when  it  was  given  to  me  earlier.     This  morning  I  was  told  that  I  was  to 


I^E MARKS  A  T  THE  B  USINESS  MEN'S  L  UNCH.         4 1 1 

speak  on  '  The  Present  Crisis  in  Japan';  but  it  makes  very  little  liittercnce  which 
M'av  the  subject  is  phrased.  In  any  case  it  is  too  large  tor  an  after-dinner 
speech. 

"  I  shall  mention  but  a  few  of  the  many  thoughts  which  press  for  utterance  to 
us  at  this  time  when  our  eyes  are  turned  toward  the  Eastern  coast  of  Asia.  A  great 
struggle  between  thejapanese  and  the  Russians  now  seems  to  be  inevitable.  What  will 
be  the  result  "i  No  one  can  tell.  A  few  facts  however,  may  be  stated  without  fear 
of  contradiction.  Thejapanese,  by  the  most  remarkable  tests  to  which  any  people 
could  be  subjected  have  proved  themselves  the  most  patriotic  people  in  the  world. 
The  surrender  by  the  Daimios  of  the  land  and  authority  which  they  had  possessed 
for  generations  in  order  that  the  unity  and  greatness  of  the  Empire  might  be  pro- 
moted, was  the  most  magnificent  act  in  modern  history.  If  all  the  governors  of 
the  various  states  of  our  Union  instead  of  being  mere  rulers  were  the  owners  of 
their  territory,  and  they,  in  order  that  the  nation  might  be  spared,  should  volun- 
tarily surrender  all  their  rights  and  all  their  possessions,  their  act  would  be 
parallel  to  the  sacrifices  which  the  Daimios  and  the  Shogun  made  for  Japan. 
They  literally  sacrificed  everything  for  the  Empire;  —  many  of  them  were  after- 
ward rewarded  but  their  action  was  not  stimulated  by  the  prizes  which  were 
offered. 

"Japan  is  the  most  progressive  nation  which  the  world  has  ever  known.  It 
has  come  to  its  place  of  power  more  swiftly  than  any  other  nation  ever  did.  It  is 
only  about  fifty  years  ago  that  Commodore  Perry  opened  her  doors  to  the  outside 
world.  The  fifty  jears  since  then  have  made  her  one  of  the  most  intelligent,  well 
governed  and  civilized  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  If  the  conflict  which  now  seems  impending  must  go  on,  I  plead  for  sympathy 
for  the  Japanese.  One  of  their  leaders  said  to  me  a  few  years  ago  when  I  was 
there, — '  We  were  not  the  enemies  of  China  during  the  late  war ;  we  felt  that  we  were 
called  upon  to  be  the  teacher  of  China,  and  now  that  the  war  is  over  we  are  as  good 
friends  as  ever'.  That  remark  indicates  their  spirit.  They  stand  for  an  open  door, 
for  the  larger  commerce,  for  a  progressive  life  and  for  a  more  generous  civilization. 
If  the  war  must  come  the  welfare  of  the  world  in  the  immediate  future  depends 
upon  their  success  in  the  struggle. 

"But  will  they  be  successful?  Ah,  there  is  the  question  I  The  Japanese  are 
more  like  the  French  than  the  Germans.  They  are  as  brave  as  it  is  possible  for 
men  to  be.  They  care  nothing  for  their  own  lives;  but  they  are  dealing  with 
Russia,  that  power  which  seems  never  to  be  in  a  hurry,  that  never  rests,  that  is 
pushing  on  for  the  possession  of  Manchuria,  and  ultimately  for  parts  of  China. 
What  the  outcome  will  be  none  of  us  know,  but  I  fear  that  at  the  first  victory  will 
be  with  the  Japanese  and  then  later  that  it  will  be  the  crushing  of  Japan.  Let  us 
pray  God  that  this  may  not  be  the  result. 

"Gentlemen,  we  here  in  Providence  today  have  little  influence;  our  meeting 
will  not  be  heard  of  in  London,  Paris,  Berlin  or  in  St.  Petersburg,  but  even  we 
may  do  a  little  in  the  way  of  influencing.  A  whisper  sometimes  will  start  an 
avalanche,  and  our  whisper  may  yet  be  heard  even  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  There 
is  one  thing  at  least  that  we  may  do,  and  no  American  citizen  has  a  more  sacred 
privilege  or  duty.  We  may  demand  that  all  the  powers  shall  submit  their  inter- 
national questions  to  the  Court  at  the  Hague  instead  of  to  an  arbitrament  of  arms. 
I  trust  that  in  some  way  even  Russia  may  be  made  acquainted  with  our  profound 
conviction  that  the  questions  now  at  issue  between  herself  and  Japan  should  be 
referred  to  that  Supreme  Court  of  the  world,  in  that  city  which,  in  the  order  of 
Providence  will  some  day  be  the  capital  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.     We  may 


412  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

send  our  conviction  as  to  what  should  be,  and  thus  do  our  small  part  in  preserving 
the  world's  peace  ".* 

MR,  LITTLEFIELD. — "  We  are  fortunate  in  having  with  us  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  our  State  whom  I  am  sure  we  are  all  delighted  to  honor,  and  although  I  got 
him  here  under  a  promise  not  to  call  upon  him  for  a  speech,  I  hope  he  will  use  his 
executive  clemency  and  pardon  me  for  breaking  that  promise.  The  Governor  will 
now  address  us  ". 

GOVERNOR  GARVIN. 

"Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen: — As  the  chairman  has  said,  I  came  for 
the  purpose  of  listening  and  learning.  But  for  two  reasons  I  am  interested  in  the 
Conference  which  is  going  on  in  this  citj.  In  the  first  place,  because  as  a  layman 
I  look  at  it  very  much  in  the  way  it  has  been  presented  to  you  by  Mr.  Palmer,  as 
an  evidence  of  the  growing  unity  in  religion.  In  my  early  days  as  a  boy  I  remember 
that  there  were  very  great  antagonisms  among  the  various  protestant  denominations. 
There  was  a  narrowness  on  the  part  of  individual  clergymen  in  their  theological 
views,  and  a  keen  opposition  to  one  another  on  the  part  of  the  various  denomina- 
tions. That  has  all  changed  in  a  very  radical  way.  The  evidences  of  it  are  not 
more  marked  than  those  which  we  see  here  today.  And  we  see  this  clearly  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  which  combines  so  many  different  denomina- 
tions.    For  this  reason  your  Conference  is  of  great  interest  to  me. 

And  for  another  reason.  For  sometime  I  have  been  endeavoring  in  one  way 
or  another  to  urge  upon  our  citizens  the  necessity  of  not  relying  upon  the  past, 
that  we  should  not  be  all  the  time  referring  to  what  Roger  Williams  did.  We 
ought  to  do  something  as  a  state  that  will  show  that  we  are  progressive  and  have 
something  to  give  the  world.  I  feel  that  this  Conference  is  unique,  and  I  hail  it  as 
a  promising  thing  for  our  state,  and  trust  it  will  be  another  impulse  for  the  state 
itself  and  wall  enable  us  to  set  an  example  to  posterity  as  we  have  inherited  one 
from  those  who  were  here  first". 

MR.  LITTLEFIELD. —  "I  was  fortunate  in  securing  the  attendance  of 
another  official,  but  he  pleads  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  and  also  my  promise  not  to 
call  upon  him.  Yet  I  feel  that  we  must  have  a  word  from  him  before  we  adjourn. 
I  take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  the  Mayor  of  our  city". 

MAYOR  MILLER. 

"  Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  : — I  was  very  happy  to  come  here  today, 
when  I  was  told  by  your  chairman  that  I  would  not  be  required  to  speak.  It  was 
pleasant  to  feel  that  I  would  not  have  to  do  so.  I  noticed,  however,  as  I  sat  here, 
that  during  the  remarks  of  one  of  the  speakers,  the  attention  of  the  audience 
seemed  to  turn  in  my  direction ;  and  he  was  speaking  then  of  the  former  require- 
ments of  a  minister.     I  was  reminded  of  a  former  friend  of  mine,  a  very  excellent 


*  In  accordance  with  this  suggestion  of  Dr.  Bradford,  the  following  resolution,  offered  by  Rev.  P'rank  j. 
Goodwin,  was  passed  unanimously  by  a  rising  vote: 

"  Whereas,  The  question  of  a  possible  war  between  Russia  and  Japan  is  one  which  concerns  the  inter- 
ests of  all  Christian  people  throughout  the  wor'd,  who  dread  the  sufferings  and  horrors  of  international 
strife,  representatives  of  different  Christian  churches,  including  c'ergymen  and  laymen,  assembled  in  the  City 
of  Providence,  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Providence  being 
present,  do  hereby  express  their  profound  conviction  that  the  dispute  between  the  two  nations  should  be  sub- 
mitted for  settlement  to  the  court  of  arbitration  at  The  Hague,  which  was  so  wisely  constituted  a  few  years 
ago  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Czar  of  Russia  ". 


REMARKS  AT  THE  B USINESS  MEN'S  / UNCH.         4 1 3 

man  who  lived  in  Massachusetts,  and  he  said  to  me  once,  "  Do  yon  know  that  less 
than  thirty  years  ago  I  moved  into  a  certain  town  (naming  the  town  in  Massa- 
chusetts), and  I  was  transferred  to  the  church  of  that  town  by  letter.  And  a  little 
while  after  that  the  clergyman  came  to  see  me  and  said, — '  Mr.  Jones,  I  understand 
you  are  a  Democrat',  and  I  said,  'Yes  sir,  I  am  of  that  political  faith'.  And  he 
said,  '  Mr.  Jones,  how  caji  you  reconcile  your  profession  as  a  Christian  with  being 
a  Democrat  .'' ' " 

"  Hut  things  have  changed  somewhat  since  then.  Tliere  has  been  an  advance 
in  civili^ition  throughout  New  England  tor  which  I  think  we  aie  all  happy.  I  ain 
very  glad  to  be  here  today  to  listen  to  the  remarks  that  have  been  made  by  the 
gentlemen  present.  And  I  am  further  reminded  of  what  a  change  there  has  been 
in  the  religious  world  since  I  was  a  boy.  When  I  was  a  boy  up  in  a  New  England 
town  and  my  parents  were  Baptists  of  the  strictest  type,  there  was  a  Methodist 
church  also  in  the  town  and  I  think  there  was  a  great  controversy  between  these 
two  churches  continually.  It  did  not  seem  to  me  then  that  the  members  of  the  one 
thought  there  was  any  chance  of  the  other  being  saved.  I  can  remember  distinctly 
the  bitterness  that  existed  when  I  heard  it  as  a  boy,  but  fortunately  that  is  all  gone 
by,  and  today  we  think  we  are  actuated  by  different  motives,  and  I  am  very  glad  to 
welcome  to  the  City  of  Providence  the  clergymen  from  other  cities  and  other  towns 
to  attend  a  Conference  like  this.  I  am  proud  for  the  City  of  Providence,  as  the 
Governor  has  said  he  is  for  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  for  such  a  Conference  in 
the  midst  of  us  ". 


*  AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL  OF  JOHN. 

by  rea^.  fredericiv  i^.  -a-nderson,  d.  t)., 

Profkssor    of    New    Testament    Interpretation    in    Newton    Theological 
Institution,  Newton  Centre,  Mass. 

Preface. 

An  analysis  is  an  effort  to  take  a  literary  work  to  pieces  for  the  sake  of  finding 
out  just  how  it  was  put  together,  and  why  it  was  put  together  in  just  the  form  it 
bears.  The  purpose  of  this  task  is,  therefore,  to  think  the  author's  thoughts  after 
him,  to  discover  the  fundamental  ideas  underlying  the  gospel,  to  show  how  and 
why  one  thought  follows  another,  and  to  reveal  the  plan  of  the  whole  as  it  lay  in 
the  author's  mind. 

Nothing  could  be  easier  than  a  topical  or  subject  analysis  of  John,  i.e.,  the 
Prologue,  John's  Testimony,  the  First  Disciples,  etc.;  and  the  same  thing  could 
be  said  of  a  chronological  and  geographical  analj'sis,  except  that  some  details  of 
chronology  are  difficult  of  decision.  Such  analyses  are  no  analyses  at  all.  No  one, 
who  has  thoroughly  studied  the  gospel,  supposes  that  John  planned  it  in  any  such 
external  or  chronological  way,  even  though  he  follows  a  chronological  order. 

The  work  is  a  philosophical  one,  the  results  of  reflection  on  the  character  and 
words  of  Jesus.  The  author  is  convinced  by  his  experience  with  Jesus  that  He  was 
more  than  He  appeared  to  the  world  to  be,  and  this  book  tells  us  how  not  only  the 
author  but  all  the  disciples  came  to  this  conviction.  This  story  of  growing 
belief  and  final  assurance  is  told  by  a  selection  of  topical  and  significant  incidents 
and  discourses,  which  manifest  the  true  inner  character  of  Jesus,  as  God-sent 
Messiah,  only  begotton  Son,  Divine  Word.  From  beginning  to  end  the  purpose 
is  to  detail  how  Jesus  manifested  His  divine  glory,  how  the  disciples  beheld  it,  and 
came  to  believe   (i  :  14 ;  2  :  ii  ;  20  : 8,  28,  29,  31). 

So,  of  course,  Jesus  is  the  one  central  sun  of  the  gospel  around  whom  all  the 
other  characters  revolve,  and  from  whom  they  gain  significance.  He  is  the  sub- 
ject of  every  paragraph,  the  dominating  figure  in  every  scene.  Even  when  He 
does  not  personally  appear,  as  in  i  :  19-28,  and  9  : 8-34,  Jesus  and  His  deeds  are 
the  focus  of  discussion.     This  fact  gives  the  book  a  wonderful  unity. 

The  inner  thought  of  the  book,  already  described,  is  to  be  traced  by  certain 
characteristic  and  typical  words.  These  words  indicate,  as  it  were,  distinct  strands  of 
thought,  which  the  author  weaves  together  to  make  his  gospel,  (i)  The  first 
and  most  important  strand  of  thovight  is  Jesus'  manifestation  of  His  glorj-.  This 
runs  through  the  whole  book,  and  is  the  thread  on  which  all  else  is  strung. 
Several  characteristic  words  mark  it  :  Glory  and  Glorify,  Manifestation,  Sign, 
Works,  Light,  Word.  He  manifests  Himself  as  the  God-sent,  divinely  foretold 
Messiah  of  the  Jews  (a  subordinate  representation),  as  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God,  as  the  Divine  Word,  who  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  and  was  God. 
He  manifests  Himself  in  signs  of  divine  power  and  love,  in  words  which  disclose 


*  Embodying  also  address  on  "  How  the  Gospel  was  Made",  delivered  at  the  Fifth  Conference,  held  at 
the  Central  Baptist  Church,  Providence,  R.  I.,  February  lo,  1904. 

414 


AN  ANAL  YSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  415 

a  divine  character,  and  in  the  providentially  ordered  circumstances  which  reveal 
Him.  (2)  The  second  strand,  closely  connected  with  the  first,  is  Jesus'  relation  to 
the  Father,  especially  llis  union  with  llim  and  revelation  of  Ilini.  The  Prologue 
contains  this  strand  as  indeed  it  contains  all  the  others,  and  greatly  emphasizes  it. 
See  1:1,  14,  18.  The  profoundest  chapters,  like  5,  7,  8,  10,  14,  15,  17,  arc 
full  of  it.  The  thoughts  are  most  clearly  expressed  in  i  :  18;  10:30  and  14:9. 
The  characteristic  words  are  Father  and  Son.  (3)  As  Jesus  moves  through  the 
various  scenes,  manifesting  His  glory,  some  see  that  glory  and  believe.  This 
belief  continually  intensifies  throughout  the  history  until  it  becomes  absolute 
assurance,  deathless  love  and  divine  adoration.  On  the  other  hand,  others  refuse 
to  see,  and  do  not  believe.  This  unbelict  also  intensifies  throughout  the  history, 
growing  from  questioning  into  opposition,  deadly  hatred  and,  finally,  apostasy 
on  the  one  hand  and  murder  on  the  other.  The  characteristic  words  of  this  strand 
are  Believe,  See.  The  unbelieving  mass  is  called  the  World,  which  is  Blind. 
(4)  So,  natvirally  between  these  believers  and  unbelievers  comes  a  separation, 
which  grows  wider  and  cleaner  until,  with  the  departure  of  Judas,  Jesus  is  left 
alone  with  His  little  company,  while  outside  is  the  great,  hostile  World.  The 
little  company  has  no  characteristic  name  in  the  gospel.  They  are  His  oxvn, 
His  friends,  His  sheep,  those  -A'hom  the  Father  has  given  Him  out  of  the  7vorld. 
And  yet  it  has  a  characteristic  and  significant  word,  that  word  is  Love;  beloved  and 
loving.  (5)  Belief  constantly  manifests  itself  in  testimony  to  the  truth.  John 
the  Baptist  is  the  first  witness ;  the  disciples  and  all  believers  constantly  testify ; 
Jesus  Himself  is  the  great  and  chief  witness  to  the  truth ;  the  Holy  Spirit  shall 
testify  to  Christ  as  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  The  characteristic  words  here  are 
Testify,  Testimony  and  Truth.  Unbelief  manifests  itself  also  in  questioning, 
opposition,  persecution,  hatred,  and  finally  in  the  rejection  of  the  truth,  and  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus.  (6)  The  final  issues  are  also  set  forth.  The  believer  has 
Eternal  Life,  begun  here,  lasting  forever.  This  life  comes  from  Jesus,  who  is 
Himself  the  Life,  and  so  the  Giver  and  Sustainer  of  it.  The  unbelieving  world 
already  rests  under  Judgment,  which  is  a  state  of  Death.  The  characteristic  words 
here  are  Life  and  Judgtnent  wwdi  Judge.     Death  appears  only  infrequently. 

The  following  work  is  an  attempt  to  recognize  these  strands  of  thought  in  the 
Gospel,  and  to  follow  their  lead  in  making  the  analysis.  So  far  as  the  writer 
knows,  this  is  the  first  attempt  to  follow  this  principle.  The  significant  ivords 
have  seemed  to  the  writer  to  be  guide-posts,  and  to  indicate  the  author's  inmost 
thought.  Still,  care  has  been  taken  not  to  be  led  aside  from  the  real  argument  by 
exceptional  and  insignificant  uses  of  characteristic  words,  nor  on  the  other  hand 
to  grope  when  the  words  fail  and  the  thoughts  remain  as  in  chapters  18-20. 
These  -vords  -will  be  printed  in  italics.  Constant  notes  will  inform  the 
reader  of  the  reasons  for  the  analysis  at  critical  and  difficult  points.  Side 
by  side  with  this  analysis  of  the  thought,  brief  remarks  will  supply  what  is 
needed  in  the  way  of  chronological  and  geographical  interest.  No  one  can  recog- 
nize more  clearly  than  the  writer  how  imperfect!}'  the  general  plan  has  been  carried 
out.  The  authorities  whom  I  have  found  most  useful  are  Luthardt.  Reynolds, 
Godet,  Westcott  and  Professor  Riggs. 


THE  GENERAL  ANALYSIS. 
Note. — This  is  inserted  before  the  detailed  analysis  for  convenience  of  refer- 
ence for  those  who  wish  to  examine  merely  the  larger  divisions.     The  wording  is 
exactly  the  same  as  in  the  detailed  analysis. 


4i6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Introduction.- — The  Prologue,     i  :  i-i8. 

The   Theme    of   the    Gospel. — The   Manifestation  of   the   Glory  of   the    Word 
become  Flesh  and  its  effects  of  Belief  Sind  Opposition,     i  :  19 — 20  :  31. 

I.  The  Preliminary  Manifestations  of  the  Word  become  Flesh, 
I  :  19—4  :  .S4- 

A.  The  Initial  Manifestation  by  Testimony,     i  :  19-51- 

B.  The  Initial  Se\i-Mamfestations.    2  :  i — 4  -.54. 

II.  The  Fundamental  Se\i-AIamfestations  of  the  Word  become  Flesh, 
resulting  in  growing  Belief  and  Love  over  against  growing 
Unbelief  and  Hate,  and  a  consequent  increasing  Separation  of 
Believers  from  the   World.     5  :  i — 12  150. 

A.  Jesus  Manifests  Himself  in  Union  with  the  Father  as  the 

source  of  Life.     5  : 1-47. 

B.  Jesus  Alanifests  Himself  as  the  sustainer  (the  Bread)  of 

Life.     6  :  1-71. 

C.  The  Waverings,  Questionings  and  Attacks  of  the  People 

in  view  of  past  and  fresh  Se\i-Ma?tifestations  of  Jesus, 
mostly  defensive.  Whence  He  comes,  whither  He 
goes,  w-ho  He  is  (7:25-36;  8:21-57)  is  the  subject  of 
discussion.  The  effects  are  at  first  confused  and  the 
decision  doubtful,  but  the  final  Result  is  open  rupture. 

7:1—8:59- 

D.  Jesus  Manifests  Himself  as  the  Light  oi  the  World  and 

the  Good  Shepherd  of  His  Flock  in  Union  with  the 
Father.     9  :  i — 10  :  42. 

E.  Jesus  Alanifests  His   Glory  as  the  Resurrection  and  the 

I^ife  in  word  and  in  deed  with  results  of  final  Cleavage. 
11:1-57. 

F.  The  final  effects  of  the  fundamental  '^e\i-AIanifestations 

of  Jesus  in  the   World.     12  :  1-50. 
III.     The  Final   'SeM-AIanifestations  of  the   Glory  of  the   Word  become 
Flesh,    Alanifestations  of  His  Love  and   Conquering  Life  in 
Word,  chapters  13-17,  and  Deed,  chapters  18-20. 

A.  Jesus  Alanifests  His   Love   and   Life  in  Union  with  the 

Father  to  those  who  Love  Him  and,  joined  with  Him 
in  Life-Union,  are  now  Separated irom  the  World,  with 
a  constant  view  to  the  future  (especially  the  immediate 
future)  of  Himself  and  His  disciples.     13  :  i — 17  :  26. 

B.  Jesus   Alanifests  the    Glory  of   His  Love  and  victorious 

Life  in  voluntarj'  surrender  to  Death  at  the  hands  of 
the   Unbelieving  World,  18  and  19 ;  and  the   Glory  of 
His  victorious  Life  in  the  Resurrection,  producing  the 
climax  of  Belief,  20. 
Appendix.  —  Chapter  21. 

THE  DETAILED  ANALYSIS. 
Introduction. — The  Prologue,     i  :  1-18. 

I.  The  Pre-existence,  Personality  and  Deity  of  the  Word,  vs.  i.  2,  or 
the  nature  of  the   Word  and  His  relation  to  God. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  417 

J.  Tlio  Won/,  the  aijent  in  the  creation  ot  the  entire  Tniversc,  tor  lie 
was  the  Z/'/c,  vs.  3,  4a,  or  the  relation  of  the  ]\'i>r<f  to  the 
Universe. 

3.  Because  theZ//"*-,  He  is  the  Lii:^ht  ot  men.  \s.  ^h-i^,  or  the  relation 

ot  the   Jl'onf  to  men. 

II.     But  that  Light  has  always   been  met  bv  the  ohtuseness 

and  opposition  of  human  darkness,  v.  5. 
l>.     John    fcstificd  to    the    Lii^ht    to    the   end    liiat    all    nn<iht 

hclicz'e,  vs.  6-8. 
c.     That  Light,  continually  streaminj^  into  the  world,  lifjiits 
every  man,  v.  9,  with  two-fold  result. 

(i)     lie  is   not  generally  recognized  or   received  in 

His  own  -Morld,  vs.  10,  11. 
(2)     Some  receive  Him,  believe,  and  become  chiUJren 
of  God,  vs.  12,  13. 

4.  The   Word  became  flesh,  and  we  beheld  His  divine  glory,  vs.  14-18, 

or  the  relation  of  the  Word  to  us,  /.  c,  the  author  and  his  fel- 
low disciples. 

a.  This  interpretation  is  in  accoril  with  John  the  Baptist's 

testiinotiy,  v.  15. 

b.  And  with  our  personal  experience,  as   recipients  of  the 

fulness,  grace  and  truth  of  the  God-revealing  Son,  vs. 
16-18.     (v.  18  returns  on  v.  14  and  v.  i). 

Note  on  i  :  1-18. — These  verses,  usually  called  the  Prologue,  are  evidently 
introductory.  In  one  sense  they  stand  by  themselves  :  in  another  sense  they  contain 
the  whole  Gospel  in  miniature,  and  explain  all  that  follows.  We  must  read  the 
Gospel  in  the  light  of  this  introduction.  Indeed  we  shall  find  much  of  the  Gospel 
a  somewhat  detailed  development  of  the  Prologue.  These  verses,  especially  the 
first  five,  are  the  author's  final  convictions  about  Jesus  Christ,  the  result  of  lifelong 
reflection  on  the  historical  manifestation  of  the  Word,  which  he  is  about  to  relate. 
So  the  author  begins  with  his  conclusion,  vs.  1-5,  and  in  this  introduction  sketches 
in  a  few  bold  strokes  the  main  facts,  vs.  6-14,  and  the  effect  produced  by  those  facts 
on  the  world  and  on  himself  and  on  his  fellow  disciples.  This  effect  he  then  pro- 
ceeds to  relate  at  length  in  the  Gospel,  ending,  20:28.  with  the  conclusion  with 
which  he  begins  in  i  :  i. 

Adopting  another  more  topical  analysis,  some  one  has  called  the  Prologue  the 
great  gate  into  the  Gospel,  with  three  doorways:  the  first,  vs.  1-5,  theological; 
the  second,  vs.  6-13,  historical;  the  third,  vs.  14-18,  the  doorway  of  experience. 
So  the  whole  mav  be  called  the  philosophic  conclusion  drawn  from  an  experience 
of  the  facts  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Note  that  we  have  in  the  Prologue  the  following  characteristic  and  significant 
words:  glorv,  light,  word,  (first  strand);  Father,  Son,  cf.  vs.  1,18,  (second 
strand);  believe,  world,  {ih'wA  strand);  the  world,  vs.  10,  11.  and  believers,  vh. 
13,  14,  are  set  over  against  each  other  (fourth  strand);  belief  finds  expression  in 
testimony,  vs.  7,  15,  and  mention  is  made  of  truth,  vs.  14,  17,  while  the  opposition 
of  the  world  to  light  and  truth  is  emphasized  (fifth  strand)  ;  the  sixth  strand  is 
undeveloped;  its  characteristic  li/c  appears,  and  that  life  is  described  in  men,  but 
not  in  terms,  vs.  14,  16.  Judgment,  however,  is  not  mentioned,  though  the  sepa- 
ration of  judgment  is  made  plain.  Thus  all  the  strands  of  thought  in  the  Gospel 
appear  in  the  Prologue.     Of  their  words,  love  And  Judgmetit  are  wanting,  though 


41 8  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  ideas  are  here ;  also  sis^n  and  -vorks,  which  belong  to  the  more  detailed  develop- 
ment.     Word,  in  the  sense  used  in  i  :  i-i8,  is  peculiar  to  this  passage. 


Preliminary  Note  on  the  Great  Divisions  of  the  Gospel.  The  Gospel 
falls  easily  into  three  great  divisions,  excluding  chapter  21,  which  is  as  clearly  an 
Appendix  as  i  :  1-18  is  an  Introduction.  The  first  is  i  :  19 — 4  :  54 ;  the  second,  5  :  i — 
12  :  50 ;  the  third,  13  :  i — 20  :  31.  Chapter  12  is  evidently  a  transition  chapter,  yet  it 
belongs  more  with  the  Ministry  than  with  the  Passion.  It  sums  up  the  issues  of 
the  conflict  before  entering  upon  the  final  self-revelations  of  love  and  victorious 
life.  Chapter  13  is  evidently  the  historical  introduction  to  the  discourse  to  the 
disciples,  nay  even  contains  the  beginning  of  it.  The  reasons  for  placing  18-20 
with  13-17  will  be  discussed  at  18.  Chapter  20  evidently  goes  with  18,  19.  The 
historical,  literary,  and  thought  connections  are  very  close. 


THE  THEME  OF  THE  GOSPEL.     1:10—20:31. 

The  Matiife.station  of  the  Glory  OF  the  Word  Become  Flesh,  and  Its 
Effects  of  Belief  and  Oppositio7i. 

I. 
The  Preliminary  Ma7ii/estatio?is  of  m^  fFbrrf  Become  Flesh.     1:19 — 4:54. 

Note. — These  manifestations  are  varied  and  fragmentary,  and  so,  in  a  sense. 
general,  compared  with  those  of  chapters  5-1 1. 
A.     The  Initial  Manifestation  by    Testi7no7iy.     i  :  19-51. 
I.     The  Tcsti77io7iy  of  John  the  Baptist  to  Christ,      i  :  I9-34- 

a.  His    testimoTiy   to    the    Pharisees    who   knew    not    Christ,    though    in 

the  midst  of  them  (v.  26).     Vs.  19-28. 
Note. — Here  is  the  first  believer,  John,  testifying  to  unbelief,   which  is  as 
yet  only  non-recognition. 

(i)     Negative  testi7no7iy.      John   is  not  the  Christ,  but   a  proph- 
esied herald  of  Him,  vs.  19-23. 
(2)     Positively.    The  Christ  \?,  here  and  is  immensely  superior  to 
John  in  dignity,  vs.  24-28. 

b.  Another  tcsti7no7iy  of  John,  vs.  29-34. 

(i)     Jesus  is  the  sin-removing  Lamb  of  God,  v.  29. 

(2)  Jesus  superior  to  John  on  account  of  His  pre-existence  (cf. 

V.  15),  but  John  came  that  Jesus  might  be  7nanifested  to 
Israel  in  baptism,  vs.  30,  31. 

(3)  John's  testi7nony  to  the  Spirit's  descending  and  abiding  on 

Christ,  a  divine  testimony  that  it  is  He  who  baptizes  with 
the  Spirit,  vs.  32,  33. 

(4)  John's  testi/nony,  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  v.  34  (cf.  20:31). 
2.     The  Belief  and  Testi7no7iy  oi  the  First  Di&c'i^Xes.     1:35-51- 

Note. — The  little  circle  of  believers  now  begins  to  grow.  Their  belief  springs 
out  of  their  experience  with  Jesus  (1:14);  cf.  "  come  and  see",  vs.  40,  47.  So 
there  is  self-revelation  of  Jesus  here,  cf.  vs.  47-51 ;  but  it  is  very  subordinate. 

a.  John  testifies  again,  and  Andrew  and  one  other  follow  Jesus  and  believe 

(cf.  V.  41),  vs.  35-40. 

b.  Andrew  testifies  that  Jesus  is  the    Christ,  and  Simon  Peter  believes, 

vs.  41,  42. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  419 

c.  Philip's  belief  s^wd  similar  testimony  to  Nathaniel,  vs.  43-46. 

d.  Nathaniel  believes  (v.  50),  and  testijies  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  0/ God, 

the  King  of  Israel,  vs.  47-50. 
Larger  revelations  promised,  vs.  50,  51. 
Note  on  Place  anijTime.— Bethany  beyond  Jordan,  i  :  28  (cf.io  :4o).     Prob- 
ably about  opposite  Jericho.    After  the  Temptation.     Four  days  (vs.  19,  29,  35,  43) 
in   later   February,  A.  D.  27,  if  Jesus  was  baptized,  as  is  most  probable,  in  early 
January.     Jesus  probably  not  present  on  first  of  these  days   (of.  vs.  26,  29). 
B.     The  Initial  SKi^F-MaftifestaiioHs.     2:1 — 4:54. 

I.     By  the   Si^n  oi  turning  the   water  into  wine.     2:  i-ii.     He  thus  manifested 
His  glory  as    kindly   Lord  of   Nature  (of.    i  13).     Increase   of  belief  in 
His  disciples,  v.  1 1. 
1.     Jesus    matiifests    Himself   as    the    Purifier  and    Lord    of   His    Father's    house, 
reminding  His  disciples  of  prophecy.     2  :  12-22. 
Note. — A  minor  strain  of  thought — that  of  fulfilled  prophecy  and  divine  pre- 
determination—  runs  through    the   Gospel,  cf.   12:14,  i5>  37"4o;    13:18;     15:21;; 
17:  12;  19:24,  36,  37,  etc. 

a.  In   the  opposing  Jews,  Jesus  already  sees  the  murderous  outcome  of 

unbelief,  and  enigmatically  gives  them  the  sign  of  His  victory  in 
death  and  resurrection,  vs.  1S-21. 

b.  After  the  event,  this  prophecy  increases  the  disciples'  belief,  v.  22. 
Note  on  Time. — Passover,  beginning  April  11,  A.  D.  27. 

3.  Jesus  declares  Life,  through  belief  in  Him,  not  belief  in  signs,  the  prime 
necessity.     2  :  23 — 3  :  36. 

Note. —  The  transition  to  the  third  chapter  and  that  chapter  itself  are  very 
difficult  of  analysis.  Is  Nicodemus  one  of  the  untrustworthy  believers,  who  believe 
the  signs  and  yet  do  not  believe.''  It  seems  so,  cf.  3  :  12.  In  contrast  with  the 
Sadducees  of  2  :  18,  Nicodemus  and  his  Pharisee  friends  can  read  the  signs  and  see 
that  Jesus  is  a  teacher  from  God,  3  :  2.  Yet,  like  those  in  2  :  23-25,  he  and  they 
lack  one  thing,  on  which  the  gospel  lays  greatest  stress,  /".  e.,  life,  birth  from  the 
Spirit.  This  Nicodemus  has  not  yet.  He  has  not  seen  the  Kingdom  of  God,  much 
less  entered  it,  for  he  has  no  life,  which  expresses  itself  in  obedience  (water,  v.  5). 
He  knows  not  the  a,  b,  c  of  spiritual  religion,  v.  lo.  This  is  all  true  despite  the  fact 
that  Nicodemus  afterwards  became  a  real  believer.  The  whole  passage  is  remark- 
able in  depicting  the  effect  of  Jesus'  first  appearance  in  Jerusalem.  There  is  a  lack 
of  clear  understanding,  a  fluidity  in  the  situation,  which  marks  the  time  before 
men  begin  to  take  sides. 

Nicodemus  beginning  to  detach  himself  from  the  Jews  of  2  :  18 — the  woman  of 
Samaria  and  the  nobleman  of  chapter  4  doing  the  same  thing  more  decisively — 
might  suggest  an  analysis.  Vet  this  is  too  thin  a  thread  on  which  to  string  this 
whole  section.  So  too,  placing  chapters  3  and  4  in  opposition  to  2  :  12-22,  we 
might  see  how  Jesus,  rejected  by  the  nation,  turns  to  individuals.  But  He  does 
not  turn  to  Nicodemus,  Nicodemus  turns  to  Him;  and  the  baptizing  in  Judea, 
3  :22,  is  not  in  line  with  such  an  analysis.  Moreover  in  this  chapter  Nicodemus 
does  not  become  a  believer  and  so  can  hardly  be  classed  with  the  Samaritan 
woman  and  the  nobleman.  The  difficulties  are  so  great  that  Meyer  suggests  the 
external  expedient  of  regarding  this  as  an  important  incident  in  Jerusalem  at  this 
time,  related  merelv  because  of  its  historical  interest.  The  better  way  probably  is 
to  regard  the  Nicodemus  incident  as  the  foundation  of  the  teachings  about   spir- 


420  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

itual  life  (cf.  i  :33) — here  as  the  prime  necessity  to  real  belief.  This  is  further 
developed  in  3  :  16  sq.  and  chapters  4,  5  and  6.  Chapter  3  :  1-13  does  not  consti- 
tute a  self-revelation  of  Jesus  (cf.  however  i  :  33  ;  3  :34b.  Westcott),  but  vs.  14,  15 
do,  and  are  the  text  from  which  vs.  16-21  are  developed  (cf.  vs.  31-36).  The  chapter 
partakes  of  the  varied  and  fragmentary  character  of  the  whole  preliminary  section 
I  :  ig — 4  :  54,  and  cannot  be  pressed  into  any  mold  of  analysis  without  violence. 
Still  life  seems  to  be  the  thread,  which  connects  it  with  2  :  23-25,  on  which  most  of 
chapter  3  is  strung,  and  which  extends  into  chapters  4,  5,  6. 

Chapter  3  :  1-15  contains  Jesus'  first  extended  discourse,  but  it  is  not  long, 
and  should  not  turn  us  aside  from  the  thought-analysis,  which  underlies  both 
incident  and  discourse. 

3.     (Repeated.)     Jesus  declares  Life,  through  belief  in  Him,  not  belief  in  signs., 
the  prime  necessity.     2  :  23  —  3  :  36. 

a.  The     historical    introduction.     Many   signs    produce    many   untrust- 

worthy believers.     Nicodemus  a  notable  example.     2  :  23  —  3:2. 

b.  Jesus  tells  Nicodemus  plainly  that  he  who  merely  believes  because  of 

signs,  does  not  even  see  God's  Kingdom ;  that  the  prime  necessity 
is  new  life,  a  spiritual  rebirth  (cf.  i  :  13),  which  shows  itself  in  obed- 
ience and  joining  the  company  of  faith  (water,  v.  5)  ;  vs.  3-8.  (Note 
that  it  is  Jesus  who  baptizes  with  the  Spirit,  cf.  i  :  33.) 

(i)  To  this  truth  testimony  is  borne  by  («)  the  body  of  Jewish 
teaching,  vs.  9,  10.  {b)  Jesus,  John  the  Baptist  and  the 
disciples — "we",  v.  11.  (Note  the  "  we  "  and  "ye"  begin 
to  show  the  separation  of  the  witnessing  company  from 
the  tvorld.)  (c)  Jesus  who  knows  heavenly  realities  as 
none  other  can,  vs.  12,  13. 
(2)  This  eternal  life  belongs  to  him,  who  believes  not  in  signs, 
but  in  the  crucified  Messiah.  (This  crucifixion  a  part  of 
the  divine  purpose,  "  must".)  Vs.  14,  15.  Cf.  the  Lamb  of 
God,  I  :  29,  36. 

c.  The  author's  reaffirmation  and  development  of  the  thought  of  vs.  14, 

15.     Vs.  16-21. 

(1)  The  source  of  the  gift  of  His  only  begotten  Son,  is  God's 

love  for  the  -world,  a  desire  that  all  might  have  this  eternal 
life  through  belief  on  the  So7t  and  so  should  be  saved,  not 
judged.     Vs.  16,  17. 

(2)  Belief,  or  lack  of  it,  the  ground  of  present  acquittal  or  Judg- 

ment before  God  ;  judgment  because  of  reiection  of  light, 
due  to  an  evil  life.     Vs.  18-21. 

d.  Excursus.     Over  against  the  rejection  and  half-hearted  reception  in 

Jerusalem,  which  drives  Jesus  into  Judea,  record  is  made  of  John  the 
Baptist's  final  testimony  to  Christ  &r\A  His  ultimate  victory,  vs.  22-36. 

(1)  Circumstance  leading  up  to  it,  vs.  22-26. 

(2)  The  testitnony.     Jesus'  God-given  success  is  fitting  the  Christ, 

the  bridegoom  of  His  people,  and  will  continually  increase, 
vs.  27-30. 

(3)  The  author's  comments,  reaffirming  and  developing  this  tes- 

timony, (a  kind  of  climax  and  review  of  the  whole  section, 
cf.  3  :  18-21).  The  spiritual  supremacy  of  the  Son  and  of 
His  testimony.     He  who  believes  counts  God  true  and  has 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  421 

eternal  ///<•.     lie  who    does  not  believe  rests  under  God's 
abiilinij  wrath.     \'s.  31-36. 
4.     jesus  )iiiiiii/cs/s  Iliiuselt  as  the  I.ifc  (iiver.     4  :  1-54. 

XoTK. — Chapter  4  is  more  easily  co-ordinated.  Vs.  7-15  are  the  heart  of  it. 
Jesus  presents  Himself  as  the  Giver  of  the  New  Life,  a  distinct  advance  on  chap- 
ter 3.  Vs.  16-42  show  1 11m  actually  giving  and  the  woman  and  the  people  actually 
receiving  the  new  life.  And  without  a  .f/V//,  save  of  knowledge,  vs.  17-19,  29,  they 
confess  Him  Messiah  and  Saviour  of  the  World.  T\\3.\.  sig-n,  belief,  and  life  are 
still  in  mind  is  shown  in  43-54-  Here  the  nobleman  believes  in  Jesus  before  he 
sees  any  si^n  at  all,  and  Jesus  is  seen  again  in  twofold  manner,  as  Life-Giver.  So, 
on  the  side  of  growth  in  belief,  the  last  incident  is  the  climax  of  2  123  —  4  :  54-  It 
seems  a  mistake  to  think  the  principal  interest  here  historical ;  the  historical  enters 
in  indeed,  and  modifies  the  thought-analysis,  but  the  incidents  and  discourses  are 
selected  for  the  pin-pose  of  nianifcsti/ig' ]cf^w^. 

<i.     To  the  Woman  of  Samaria.  4:1-42. 

(i)     Circumstances  leading  up  to  the  manifestation,  vs.  1-6. 

(2)  Jesus  manifests   Himself  in  word  as  the  Giver  of  Life,  the 

Giver  of  the  living  water  and  leads  the  woman  to  desire  it 
(vs.  10,  13,  14),  vs.  7-15. 

(3)  His  divine  insight  convicts  the  woman  of  sin  and  leads  her 

to  recognize  Him  as  a  prophet,  vs.  16-19. 

(4)  His  word  on  spiritual  wprship  leads  to  His  self-disclosure  as 

Messiah,  vs.  20-26. 

(5)  Thus  leading  her  to  belief  \n    Him,  lie  actually  gives   new 

life  to  her  and  her  people. 

(a)     The  w'oman's   testimony  (cf.  v.  39),  vs.  2S-30. 
{b)     Belief  of    the  people,    who  testify  that    He    is  the 
Messia/i,  the  Saviour  of  the  World,  vs.  39-42. 

(6)  Excursus.     Jesus  tells  His  disciples  of  the  satisfaction,  joy 

and  reward  of  the  harvest  to  eternal  life,  vs.  27,  31-3S. 

Note — The  woman  and  the  Samaritans  believe  without  any  sitrn,  save 
that  of  divine  knowledge,  vs.  17-19,  29. 

b.     To  the  nobleman  in  Cana,  4  :  43-54- 

(1)  Circumstances  of  favorable  reception  in  Galileo,  founded  on 

siffns  seen  in  Jerusalem  at  the  feast,  and  leading  up  to  the 
following  incident,  vs.  43-46a. 

(2)  To  the  nobleman   who    believes   the   simple  word  of  Jesus, 

v.  50,  without  any  siffH  at  all,  Jesus  reveals  Himself  as  Life- 
giver,  V.  51.     Resulting  increased  belief.    Vs.  46b-54. 

Note — The  author  does  not  sharply  distinguish  between  the  giving 
of  phvsical  and  spiritual  life,  cf.  5  :  21-29;  11  125,  26,  and  chapter  20.  A 
great  truth  may  lie  hid  here. 

Note  on  Ti.me  and  Place. — Notes  of  time  are  indefinite.  The  conversation 
with  Nicodemus  probably  occurred  during,  or  better,  shortly  after  the  Passover, 
April,  A.  I).  27.  The  Judean  Ministry,  parallel  with  John's,  probably  was  at 
least  six  months  long.  This  brings  Jesus  back  through  Samaria  into  Galilee 
about  December  of  27.  No  one  knows  where  Aenon,  near  to  Salim,  was.  F^or 
Svchar,  see  Geo.  Adam  Smith's  Historical  Geography,  pp.  367-375. 


422  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

II. 
The  Fundamental  ?>v.i.F-Mantfcstations  of  the  Word  become  Flesh,  re- 
sulting IN  GROWING  Belief  and  Love  over  against  growing  Unbelief 
AND  Hate,  and  a  Consequent  increasing  Separation  of  Believers  from 
the  World.  5  :  i — 12  :  50. 
Note  on  the  Second  Great  Division.  —  All  recognize  the  preliminary, 
fragmentary,  general  character  of  the  First  Division,  i  :  18 — 4  154,  which  makes  it 
difficult  to  analyze.  Most  of  the  fundamental  self-manifestations  found  in  5-12 
appear  earlier,  and  all  are  hinted,  but  in  this  section,  which  constitutes  the  body 
of  the  Gospel,  they  are  presented  in  more  massive  form,  are  discussed  and  defended 
at  greater  length  and  from  different  points  of  view.  The  Self-Manifestations 
seem  to  be  the  ruling  thought  of  these  chapters  as  a  whole.  They  run  through 
them  all,  and  except  in  7  and  8  hold  the  place  of  first  importance.  Another  great 
strand  of  thought  is  the  growth  of  Unbelief  and  Hate,  so  that  some  have  named 
the  whole  Division,  the  Period  of  Conflict.  This  strand  must  not. be  minimized  if 
a  true  view  of  this  division  is  to  be  maintained,  and  yet  it  is  only  in  7  and  8  that 
it  becomes  dominant,  the  self-revelations  taking  the  second  place.  The  increasing 
Separation  between  Believers  and  the  World  rises  to  the  dignity  of  a  third  parallel 
strand,  and  is  especially  emphasized  in  9  and  10,  if  indeed  it  does  not  dominate 
there.  These  last  two  strands  have  also  appeared  in  i  :  19 — 4  :  54,  as,  of  course,  also 
in  the  Prologue,  but  onl}'  occasionally  and  merely  in  embryo.  On  many  grounds 
connected  with  the  analysis,  the  question  has  been  raised  whether  chapter  5  did 
not  originally  follow  chapter  6.  More  will  be  said  on  this  in  note  preceding 
chapter  7.  For  a  brief  and  clear  discussion  of  this  view,  see  Burton's  Purpose  and 
Plan  of  the  Four  Gospels,  John,  pp.  12-20. 

A.     Jesus    Manifests     Himself    in     Union    with    the    Father   as  the  Source 
OF  Life.     5  :  1-47. 
Note  on  Time. — The  correct  reading  of  5  :  i  is  "a"  feast  of  the  Jews.     This  is 
so  indefinite  as  to  preclude  any  dogmatism  about  it.     Possibly  the  best  guess  is  the 
Pentecost  or  Passover  (.'')  of  A.  D.  28. 

1.  By  the  -work  of  giving  new  life  to  the  impotent  man.     Vs.  1-9. 

2.  The  Opposition  urging  a  charge  of  Sabbath-breaking,  vs.  10-16,  Jesus  reveals 

Himself  as  the   Son  acting  in   perfect  unity  with  the  Father  in  thus  giving 
life  on  the  Sabbath,  v.  17. 

a.  This  evokes  the  charge   from  the  Jews  that  Jesus  claims  a  peculiar 

divine  Sonship  and  an  equality  -with  God;  they  therefore   desire  to 
kill  Him,  v.  18. 

b.  Jesus  does  not  deny  their   charge,  but  reasserts  an  absolute  utiity  of 

action  with  God,  and  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  inner  thought  and 
purpose  of  God,  vs.  19,  20a. 
Note — The  following  discourse  is  on  these  two  lines — ^^Jesus'  union  and 
equality  with  the  Father,  and  His  consequent  status  as  a  Source  of  Life. 

(i)     On   the  ground  of  this   unity  &ndi   knowledge  He   promises 
greater  works,  v.  20b,  viz : — 

(«)     Spiritual  resurrection  of  whom  He  will,  v.  21. 
(3)     Judgtnent,  which  has  been  given  Him  that  all  men 
may  honor  Him  even  as  they  honor  the  Father, 
vs.  22,  23. 
(2)     Returning  to  2  (v.  17,  cf.  v.  21),  Jesus  reveals   Himself  as  a 
self-existing  source  of  life,  for  both  spiritual  and  corporeal 
resurrection,  vs.  24-29. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  423 

(3)     ^ •  30  reaffirms  vs.  19,  20a,  as   the  ifrouiui  of  the  forcgoini; 
self-assertions. 
3.     Jesus  cites  the  testimony  for  these  claims.     Vs.  31-47. 

a.  The  Father's  testimony,  vs.  32  and  37. 

b.  John  the  Baptist's,  which  lie  does  not  need, though  they  may.  vs.  33-35- 

c.  His  divine- wo/-X\f  testify,  v.  36. 

li.     The  O.  T.   Scriptures,  which  testify  of   Him,  and  which  they  do  not 
believe  on  account  of  their  love  of  human  applause,  vs.  37-47. 

B. — ^Jesus  Manifests  Him.selk  as  the  Sustainer  (the  Bread)  ok  Life.    6:1-71. 

Note  of  Time. — This  is  near  Passover  of  A.  D.  29.     See  v.  4. 

1.  By  the  Sign  of  His  feeding  the  multitude.     Vs.  1-24. 

a.  The  Story  of  the  Feeding,  vs.  1-13. 

b.  Effect.     In  mere  carnal  belief  (which  is  unbelief)  the  people  think  Him 

the  prophet  and  wish  to  make  Hiin  a  political  king,  but  He  with- 
draws, vs.  14,  15. 

c.  Episode.     Jesus  walking  on   the  water,  a   mere   historical  item,   trans- 

ferring Him  to  Capernaum,  whither  the  people  come  also,  vs.  16-24. 

2.  By  His  discourse  on  the  Bread  of  Life.     Vs.  25-59. 

a.  First  conversation,  leading  up  to  the  statement,  "  I  am  the  true  heav- 

enly bread",  ///e  giving,  satisfying,  given  io  faith  with  result  of 
eternal  life  and  resurrection  at  the  last  day.  Result,  unbelief  (^\ .  36). 
Vs.  25-40. 

b.  Second   conversation,    reaffirming  the    first,    especially  enlarging   on 

their  unbelief,  and  leading  up  to  the  declaration  that  this  bread  is 
His  flesh,  which  He  will  give  for  the  life  of  the  7vorld,  vs.  41-51. 

c.  Third  conversation.     To  the  perplexed  and  unbelieving  Jews,  Jesus 

emphatically  reenforces  the  former  statement,  declaring  eating  His 
flesh  and  drinking  His  blood  the  pre-requisite  of  eternal  life,  and 
the  basis  of  a  life-union  between  Himself  and  the  believer,  vs.  52-59. 

3.  Results.     Vs.  60-71. 

a.  Unbelieving  disciples,   unable  to   bear  this  spiritual  teaching,    which 

dissipates  all  their  worldly  Messianic  hopes,  walk  no  more  with 
Him,  vs.  60-66. 

b.  The  Twelve  testify  their  belief  \n  Him  and  cling  to  Him,  but   one  of 

them  is  a   devil.     Note   the  separation,  but    not    complete    till  the 

withdrawal  of  Judas  (  13  :  30).  Vs.  67-71. 
Note. —  In  5  and  6  Jesus  interprets  His  own  signs,  tracing  the  power  which 
heals  the  impotent  man  to  His  union  with  God,  and  declaring  that  His  feeding  of  the 
bodies  of  the  multitude  is  but  a  hint  of  His  power  to  sustain  the  life  of  the  soul. 
Some  of  Jesus'  hearers  interpreted  His  signs,  but  only  superficially.  Jesus  Him- 
self gives  them  their  deepest  significance. 

Note  on  Chapieks  7  and  8.  An  anal\sis  here  meets  insuperable  difficulties, 
and  every  scheme  is  justly  open  to  criticism.  The  self-revelations  of  Jesus  do  not 
cease,  indeed  are  probably  more  important  in  the  author's  mind  than  many  think. 
Jesus  certainly  asserts  most  strongly  His  divine  origin,  mission,  fimction  and 
nature.  Yet,  after  all,  these  self-manifestations  are  mostly  defensive,  brought  out 
by  the  questions  and  attacks  of  the  people.  So  it  is  the  situation  which  is  most 
prominent.     The  attitude  of  the  people  for  the  time  gets  the  upfXT  hand  in  the 


424  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

drama.  The  conflict  is  here  at  its  height,  the  attack  is  persistent.  Jesus  meets  it 
by  determined  and  unflinching  self-assertions.  The  results  are  at  first  doubtful; 
the  varying  and  varied  thought  of  the  mixed  multitude  is  strikingly  depicted. 
The  confusion  of  the  time  has  penetrated  the  narrative  itself.  The  attacks  first 
from  one  side  and  then  from  another,  and  the  fragmentary  nature  of  this  report 
account  perhaps  for  the  dislocations,  and  are  true  to  just  such  a  situation.  But  in 
the  end  the  result  is  open  rupture.  The  Jews  hold  the  field  and  Jesus  retires.  In 
9-u  He  more  and  more  withdraws  Himself.  His  final  death  and  the  separation  of 
His  sheep  from  the  world  are  seen  to  be  inevitable. 

It  would  be  a  great  aid  to  clearness  of  analysis  if  the  theory  of  displacement  of 
various  sections  of  the  Gospel  should  prove  true,  for  the  difliculties  of  the  present 
arrangement  of  the  matter  are  insuperable.  In  Burton's  Purpose  and  Plan  of  the 
Four  Gospels,  John,  pp.  12-20,  already  referred  to,  the  following  rearrangement 
is  proposed:  6:1-71;  5:1-47;  7:15-24  (which  evidently  refers  to  chapter  5); 
7:1-13,  25-36,  45-52,  37-44;  (8  :  i-i I,  interpolation)  ;  8:21-57;  9:1-41;  10:19-21; 
8  :  12-20,  which  evidently  has  close  relations  to  chapter  9.  This  rearrangement 
should  be  studied  carefully,  but,  as  it  is  still  merely  a  theory  tentatively  held,  the 
following  analysis,  of  course,  proceeds  on  the  basis  of  chapters  7  and  8  as  we  have 
them.  However,  we  ask  the  reader  to  note  that  the  confusion  in  the  analysis  is 
onh'  the  reflection  of  the  confusion  of  the  material. 

Note  on  Time. — This  chapter  7  is  dated,  vs.  2,  14,  37,  as  at  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  Sept.-Oct.  A.  D.  29.  Chapter  8  seems  to  have  the  same  date,  though 
there  is  no  certainty. 

C.  The  Waverings,  Qitestionings  and  Attacks  of  the  People  in  view  of 
PAST  AND  fresh  SE.L.¥-AIafiifestati(}HS  of  Jesus,  mostly  defensive. 
Whence  He  comes,  whither  He  goes,  who  He   is  (7:25-36;  8:21-57), 

IS     THE    subject    OF     DISCUSSION.       TlIE    EFFECTS    ARE    AT     FIRST    CONFUSED, 
AND    THE    DECISION     DOUBTFUL,    BUT    THE    FINAL    RESULT     IS    OPEN    RUPTURE. 

7:1—8:59. 

1.  Jesus  goes   up  to   the    Feast  of  Tabernacles,  an  historical   introduction   with 

three  significant  points,   describing  the  character  of  the  following  scenes. 

7:  1-13- 

a.  His  time,  His  final  hour,  has  not  yet  come,  vs.  6,  8. 

b.  The  xvorld  hates  Him,  v.  7. 

c.  The  differing  opinions  of  the  multitude  concerning  Him,  v.  12. 

2.  In    reply   to  questions  and  attacks,   Jesus   defends  His  claims  and   acts,  and 

makes  new  manifestations  of  Himself.     Varying  results.     Vs.  14-52. 

a.  Jesus  asserts  the  divine  origin  and  the  truth  of  His  teaching,  vs.  14-18, 

and  defends    His  acts,  especially   His  healing  of  the  impotent  man 
(chapter  5),  vs.  19-24. 

b.  Questioning,    leading  to  Jesus'  assertion  of  His   divine    mission,  has 

varying  results,  vs.  25-31. 

(1)  Some  would  take  Him,  v.  30. 

(2)  Many  believed,  v.  31. 

c.  The   Sanhedrin  send  officers  to  take  Him,  vs.  32-52. 

(i)  Jesus,  seeing  in  this,  the  prophecy  of  His  arrest,  predicts  His 
early  return  to  the  Father,  a  statement  which  confuses  the 
Jews  and  gives  no  occasion  for  the  arrest,  vs.  33-36. 

(2)  He  reveals  Himself  as  the  Living  Water  and  the  Giver  of  the 
Spirit,  vs.  37-39. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  425 

Note. — Vs.  37-39  come  in  abruptly ;  sec  proposed  rearrange- 
ment in  note  above.  Still  thev  seem  needed  here.  The 
officers  report  His  wonderful  words,  v.  46.  They  can 
hardly  refer  to  the  words  in  vs.  33,  34,  which,  though  mys- 
terious, would  not  be  particularly  impressive.  They  prob- 
ably heard  vs.  37-39,  and  referred  to  them.  On  this  ground 
these  words  are  grouped  with  vs.  33-36  in  the  Analysis. 
(3)  Varying  results,  especially  of  the  words  of  vs.  37-39.  Vs. 
40-52.  (Note  the  strain  of  separation.) 
(«)     A  division  in  the  multitude,  vs.  40-4^. 

Some  say  a  prophet  or  the  Messiah,  vs.  40.  41a. 
Some  confused  by  a  misapprehension,  would  have 
taken  Him,  vs.  4ib-44. 
(i)     A  division  in  the  Sanhedrin. 

The  officers,  impressed   by  vs.  37-39,  do   not   take 

Him,  vs.  45,  46. 
The    Pharisees   expostulate    with   them,    ss.    47-49, 

cf.  V.  52. 
Nicodemus  deprecates   their  prejudgment  of  Jesus, 
vs.  50,  51. 
Note. — John  7  :  53 — 8  :  11  is  not  an  original  part  of  this  Gospel.     It  is  omitted 
by  R.  V. 

3.  Discussion  involving  the  nature  and  mission  of  Jesus,  the  outcome  of  the 
conflict,  the  true  character  of  discipleship  and  of  the  Jews.  8  :  12-58. 
Note. — 8  :  12-58  might  perhaps  just  as  well  have  been  made  into  subdivisions, 
d.  e.  f.  g.  under  C.  2,  whose  necessarily  general  heading  would  cover  the  contents. 
A  new  heading  is  substituted  for  convenience  of  analysis  and  clearness  of  presen- 
tation, and  because  the  break  at  8  :  12  seems  more  decisive  than  any  other  in  these 
chapters.  In  this  chapter,  too,  the  self-assertion  of  Jesus  grows  more  positive  and 
important,  emerging  more  clearly  from  the  confusion  of  the  conflict. 

a.  Jesus'  s&M-maftifestation  as  Light  oi  the  Jf^orW  provokes  a  discussion 

of  the  testimony  on  which  such  a  claim  is  based.  Jesus  defends  His 
own  character  as  w/V«^55,  and  claims  His  Father  as  another  ivitness. 
Vs.  12-20.     In  the  treasury,  v.  20. 

b.  Foreseeing  the  end  of   this  determined  and  captious  opposition,   cf. 

7  :  33,  34,  Jesus   prophesies  His  own  departure,  and  His  opponents' 

death  in  sin,  vs.  21-30. 

(i)  Their  taunt,  v.  22,  leads  Him  to  trace  this  difference  in  des- 
tiny to  a  decisive  difference  in  moral  character.  Only 
belief  in  Him  can  save  them,  v.  24.  This  is  only  one  of 
many  /udgnients  of  them  which  He  must  speak,  v.  26.     \'s. 

(2)  At  the  time  of  His  "lifting  up",  they  shall  come  to  under- 
stand who  He  is.  cf.  v.  25.  Result,  many  belici'vrs.  Vs. 
28-30. 

c.  Discourse  on  discipleship  and  spiritual  sonship,  vs.  31-50. 

(i)     Discipleship,  vs.  31-36. 

((/)  On  condition  of  abiding  in  His  word,  disciples  shall 
know  the  truth  and  shall  gain  spiritual  freedom, 
vs.  31,  32. 


426  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

(d)     Developing  the  thought  of  spiritual  freedom  in  con- 
nection with  the   idea   of   Sonship,  Jesus  declares 
the  slavery  of  sin   and   the   ability  of  the  Son  to 
make  them  sons,  not  slaves,  vs.  34-36. 
Note. — The  Jews  in  v.  33  add  the  idea  of  descent  or  sonship  to  the  idea  of 
freedom.      The   contrast   between   Jesus'   spiritual   idea   and   the   people's   carnal 
thoughts  is  here  brought  out  as  strikingly  as   in   chapter  6.      The  great  spiritual 
truths  of  this    section    stand     isolated,    further  elaboration   being    prevented    by 
materialistic  objections,  and  barren  discussion  on  a  lower  plane. 
(2)     Sonship,  vs.  37-50. 

(«)  Jesus  acknowledges  them  Abraham's  physical  seed, 
but  asserts  that  their  character  shows  another  spirit- 
ual parentage,  vs. 37,  38. 

(d)  They  are  not  the  spiritual  children  of  Abraham,  for 

they  are  unlike  him  in  character,  vs.  39,  40. 
(c)     They  are  not  the  children  of  God,  else  they  would 

love  Jesus  and  receive  His  teaching,  vs   41-43. 
(«/)     They  are  the  children  of   the    devil,  for   they  are 

morally  like  him,  vs.  44-47. 

(e)  ,The   Jews'  retort,  which   Jesus   repudiates,   leaving 

His  glory  to  the  great  Judge,  vs.  48-50. 

d.  Jesus'  promise  of  eternal  life,  leads  to  a  discussion  of  whom  He  makes 

Himself,  vs.  51-58. 

(i)     The  promise,  v.  51,  cf.  vs.  31,  32,  21,  12,  is  met  by  the  Jews' 
scornful  objection  of  the  universality  of  physical  death,  vs. 
5i-53a. 
(2)     And  the  question,  whom  He  makes  Himself,  53b,  vs.  53b-58. 
(«)     Jesus    replies    that   He   needs   not  glorify  Himself. 
Their  God,  His  Father,  whom  He  knows  and  obeys, 
glorifies  Him,  vs.  54,  55. 
(i^)     Their  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  His  day,  v.  56. 
(c)     In  answer  to  their  inverted  question.  He. declares — 
"  Before  Abraham  came  into  being,  I  am",  vs.  57, 
58,  cf.  I  :  1-3. 

e.  Result:  An  attempted  stoning,  an   open   rupture  (cf.  7  :  32,  45),  v.  59. 

Note. — Violence  the  last  argument !     cf .  9  :  34. 

D.     Jesus   Manifests    Himself  as    the  Light    of  the     World  and   the  Good 
Shepherd  of  His  Flock  in   Union  with  the   Father.     9:1 — 10:42. 

Note  on  Time. — Chapter  7  :  2  dates  that  chapter  and  probably  chapter  8 
also,  at  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  Sept. -Oct.  Chapter  10  :  22  dates  the  following 
verses  at  the  Feast  of  Dedication,  December.  Now  10:  27-29  connect  vs.  22-42  so 
closely  with  10 :  14-18  that  I  cannot  think  that  several  months  intervene.  But 
10  :  i-iS  are  evidently  closely  joined  in  thought  with  chapter  9.  So,  although  the 
break  at  chapter  9  :  1  is  not  decisive,  I  am  inclined  to  make  9  :  i — 10  :42  one  section 
in  time  as  well  as  in  thought,  and  date  it  all  about  Dedication,  December,  A.  D.  29, 
three  or  four  months  before  the  Crucifixion.  This  is  confirmed  \>y  the  seriousness  of 
the  rupture  of  8  :59,  with  which  the  comparatively  mild  tone  of  chapter  9  does  not 
agree.  This  whole  question  raised  at  9  :  i,  shows  how  little  our  author  was  writing 
annals. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  427 

1.  'i'hf  ^ign  and  its  results. 

ti.     Jesus  in  the  xvork,  vs.  3,  4,  of    giving    sight    to  the  man  horn  hlind, 
matiifcsts  lliniself  as  the  Light  of  the   World,  v.  5.     Vs.  1-7. 

b.  In  the  questioning  and   investigation  of  it,  which   follow,  after  some 

wavering,  v.  i6,  the  Sign  makes  a  clear  cleavage,  v.  34,  between  the 
l)clicx'i(fg,  testifying,  ever  bolder,  once  blind  man  on  the  one  side 
and  the  truth-resisting  Pharisees  and  the  worldly-wise  parents  on 
the  other,  vs.  8-34,  cf.  i  :  10-13. 

c.  Jesus  finds  the  outcast,  who  confesses  his  belief  and  worships  Him. 

He  sees  in  this  an  instance  of  ihat  JuiigincHt,  one  of  the  features  of 
His  mission,  which  ultimately  separates  the  humble  believer  with 
spiritual  sig//t,  cf.  Matt,  n  :  25,  from  the  self-sutlicient  wise  with  their 
spiritual /^//«f///<?.s\s.  With  the  latter,  rejected  lig/it  increases  guilt. 
Vs.  35-41. 

2.  The  consequent  scM-manifestat ion .    Jesus'  relation  to  the  true  Israel  in  contrast 

with  the  Pharisees.  He  is  the  Good  Shepherd  of  His  Flock.  10:  1-21. 
Note. — The  idea  of  Light  of  the  World  is  now  dropped  and  the  sc\i-nittni/es- 
tation  connects  itself  with  9  :  34-38.  Here  the  idea  of  the  separation  of  believers, 
Jesus'  sheep,  from  the  unbelieving  world,  to  which  Israel  according  to  the  flesh  is 
reckoned,  becomes  dominant.  In  this  outcast  (9:34)  blind  man,  Jesus  sees  the 
first  member  of  the  new  community  or  flock,  who  has  entirely  and  decisivelyhroVen 
with  the  old  Israel  and  the  unbelieving  world.  The  Shepherd  seeks  His  persecuted 
sheep,  and  reveals  His  relation  to  the  flock,  which  He  foresees,  v.  16,  will  not  be 
made  up  only  of  those  who  have  come  out  from  the  Jewish  fold. 

a.  The   illustration.     Contrast  between  a  real  shepherd  and  his  relation 

to  the  sheep,  and  thieves  and  robbers ;  especially  the  real  shepherd 
leads  the  sheep  out  through  the  door  and  they  follow  him,  vs.  1-6. 

b.  Interpretation  from  two  entirely  different  points  of  view,  vs.  7-18. 

(i)  Jesus  reveals  Himself  as  the  Door,  the  Door  by  which  the 
sheep  may  go  out  of  the  fold  into  more  abundant  life,  vs. 
3,  4,  10,  and  through  which  alone  true  shepherds  gain 
access  to  the  sheep,  v.  9,  in  contrast  with  thieves  and  rob- 
bers. Vs.  7-10. 
(2)     Jesus  is  par  excellence  the  Good  Shepherd,  vs.  11-iS. 

(<0  His  characteristics  in  contrast  with  the  hireling; 
especially,  He  lays  down  His  life  for  the  sheep. 
vs.  11-15. 
{b)  He  has  other  sheep,  not  of  the  Jewish  fold,  whom 
He  must  (divine  necessity)  bring  to  make  one  flock 
with  one  Shepherd,  v.  16. 
{c)  This  death,  v.  15,  is  voluntary  and  will  issue  in  Jesus' 
resurrection,  according  to  the  P'ather's  will,  vs. 
17,  18. 

c.  Result  of  this  disclosure — division  among  the  Jews,  vs.  19-21. 

3.  The  supplementary  and  final  manifestation  of  His   Unity  with  the  Father,  in 

answer   to   the  Jews'  demand   that    He    be    plain    about    His    Messiahship. 
10 : 22-42. 
Note. — Possibly  this,  instead  of  3,  should  be  I£,  co-ordinate  with  the  self-mani- 
festations of  chapters  5  and  6  in  importance.       Probably,  however,  it  belongs  to 
9:1 — 10:21,  as  a  final  manifestation  of  His  imity  with  the  Father  in  such  work  as 


428  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  healing  of  the  man  born  blind.  Vs.  26-29  have  an  intimate  connection  with 
vs.  1-18,  and  the  "then"  of  v.  22  seems  to  connect  quite  closely.  This  ending 
reminds  us  continually  of  chapter  5. 

a.  The  demand  of   the   Jews  : — Tell  us  plainly  if   you  are  the  Messiah, 

V.  24. 

b.  The  reply,  vs.  25-30. 

(i)     Jesus  appeals  to  His  former  statements  and  -works,  v.  25. 

(2)  Their  unbelief  due  to  their  character,   they  are  not  of   His 

sheep,  V.  26. 

(3)  The  real  reply.     He  is  the  Shepherd  of  the  God-given  flock, 

and  gives  them  eternal  life,  vs.  27-29. 

(4)  In  this  redemptive  work  He  and  the  Fathei-  are  one,  v.  30. 

c.  As    they    are    about    to    stone    Him,    Jesus    remonstrates,    especially 

answering  their  statement  that  He  makes  Himself  God,  vs.  31-38. 
(i)     Their  law  justifies  His  assumption  of  the  title,  Sott  of  God, 

vs.  34-36. 
(2)     The  works  prove  the  mutual  indwelling  of  the  Father  s.x\d 

the  Son,v%.  37,  38. 

d.  Result.     They  seek  to  seize  Him.     He  escapes  to  Bethany,  beyond  Jor- 

dan, where  manj',  who  had  heard  John's  testimotiy,  believe.  Vs.  39-42. 

E.  Jesus   Manifests  His   Glory  (v.  4)  as  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life  in 

W^ORD    AND    IN    DEED,  WITH    RESULTS    OF    FINAL    Cleavage.        II  :  I-57. 

1.  The    historical    introduction  leading   up  to  the  manifestation  in    word,  I   am 

the  Resurrection   and  the  Life,  v.  25,  /.  e.,  the  Life  which  conquers   death 

for  those  who  love  and  believe  in  Me.     Vs.  1-32. 
Note. — Chapter  5    reveals  Jesus   as    the  Source    of   Life;   chapter   6   as    the 
sustainer    of   Life;    chapter    11    as    the   Life   overcoming  Death.       Nor    is   there 
wanting  a  look  forward.     He  who  can  thus  conquer  death  is  surely  not  conquered 
by  it  later.     His  death  is  voluntary,  10  :  17,  18,  and  for  others'  good. 

2.  He  proves  Himself  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life  by  raising  Lazarus.    Vs.  33-44- 

a.  The  sympathy  of  Jesus  and  His  indignation  at  the  woe  and  ruin  wrought 

by  death.     Vs.  33-38a. 

b.  The  obstacles,  vs.  38b-4ia. 

c.  The  thanksgiving,  vs.  ^\\)-\i. 

d.  Jesus  gives  life  to  the  dead  Lazarus,  vs.  43,  44. 

3.  The  results.     Vs.  45-57. 

a.  Man\-  believe,  v.  45. 

b.  The  Sanhedrin,  representing  the  Jewish  nation,  decides  on  Jesus'  death, 

vs.  46-53. 
Note. — This  is  a   solemn  and   decisive  climax  in  the  growth  of  opposi- 
tion, exceeded  only  by  19  :  14-16. 

c.  Jesus  retires  to  Ephraim,  v.  54. 

Note. — Ephraim  on  the  East  of  the  Jordan  (?). 

d.  The  people  are  curious  about  the  situation,  which  they  know  to  be 

portentous,  vs.  55-57. 
Note. — Vs.  55-57  constitute  a  transition   passage  which  could  just  as  well 
go  with  chapter  12,  to  which  it  is  introductory  in  a  sense. 

F.  The  final   effects    of  the   S^.'LY-ManifestatioHS  of  Jesus  in  the  World. 

12  :  1-50. 


AN  AXAL  YSJS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  429 

Note. — This  is  a  transition  chapter,  hoth  a  conclusion  ot  the  ministry  and  an 
introduction  to  the  passion,  hut  more  the  former  than  the  hitter,  and  so  placed  here, 
though  not  strictly  co-ordinate  with  A,  B,  etc.  The  note  of  cleavatrc,  finality, 
judgmcHt,  makes  the  chapter  solemn,  though  final  victory  is  never  more  confidently 
predicted.     It  is,  however,  victory  through  death. 

1.  In  relation  to  the  Disciples.     The  Feast  at  Bethany.     \'s.  1-8. 

a.  On  the  one  hand,  a  group  of  lovt'tii^-  disciples,  hraving  the  Sanhedrin's 

edict,  11:53;  Mary's  act  expressing  the  acme  of  devoted  Love, 
vs.  1-3. 

b.  On  the  other   hand.  Judas,  covetous  and  hypocritical,  about   to  betray 

Him,  vs.  4-8. 

2.  In  relation  to  the  Multitude.     The  Triumphant  Entry.     Vs.  9-19. 

a.  The  historical  situation.     The  people  of  Judea,  curious  and  beginning 

to  believe;  the  Sanhedrin  condemning  even  Lazarus  to  death,  \s. 
9-1 1. 

b.  The  people,  unable  after  all  to  understand  His  spiritual  teaching,  arc 

still  genuinely  enthusiastic  for  Jesus  as  an  earthly  King,  vs.  u,  13, 
17-19. 

c.  Jesus  openly  »i<im'fests  Himself  as  Messianic  King,  vs.  14-16. 

3.  In  relation  to  the  Gentiles.    The  Coming  of  the  ttreeks.     Vs.  20-.36a. 

Note. — The  Greeks  seek  Him,  when  the  Sanhedrin  has  rejected  Him.     It  is 
a  prophecy  that  He  shall  be  the  Saviour  of  all  men. 
a.     The  historical  introduction,  vs.  20-22. 

h.  The  coming  of  the  Greeks  shows  that  the  hour  has  come  and  glorifies 
the  Son  of  Man  as  universal  Saviour,  cf.  v.  32,  but  only  by  the 
way  of  self-sacrifice  and  death,  the  road  to  glory  for  both  Lord  and 
servant,  vs.  23-26. 

c.  In  view  of  death,  Jesus'  soul  is  troubled,  a   foretaste  of  Gethsemane, 

vs.  27-29,  but — 

d.  The  passion  (and  resurrection)  will  be ;  (i)  a  /udg/iienl  oi  the -rorld, 

(2)  a  casting  out  of  Satan,  (3)  a  drawing  of  all  men  to  Himself.    Vs. 

30-33- 

e.  Jesus  meets  the  Jews'  last  theological  question   with  a  final,  practical, 

solemn  warning  to  walk  while  they  have  the  Light,  vs.  34-36a. 

4.  In    relation   to    the    Nation.      Final  Judgment  on  a  re\  lew    of    the    Ministry. 

Vs.  36b-50. 

a.  A   judgment  by  the  e\angelist.     The  heads  of  the  nation  haNC  finally 

rejected  Christ  in  spite  of  His  superabundant  authentication  in 
signs,  and  the  intellectual  conviction  of  some  of  them,  vs.  36a-43. 

b.  A  judgment  made   up  of  sayings  of  Jesus.     In   rejecting  Jesus,   they 

have  rejected  God,  for  His  message  is  wholly  divine  and  not  at  all  of 
Himself  ;  and  in  rejecting  God,  they  ha\e  rejected  eternal  li/r  for 
themselves.  Even  though  rejected.  He  will  not  be  their  judge  in  any 
personal  sense,  but  the  divine  message  which  He  has  spoken  will 
be.     Vs.  44-50. 

III. 
The  final    SKi^F-Muni/estations  of  the    Glory  of  thk    Word  hkcomk    Flksii, 
Manifestations  of  Hks  Love  and  coNqi  krini;    Life  in    Woro,  chapters 
13-17,  AND  Dkkd,   chapters   18-20. 


430  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

A.  Jesus  Manifests  His  Love  and  Life  in  Unioti  with  the  Father  to  those 
WHO  Love  Him  and,  joined  with  Him  in  Life-Union,  are  now  Sepa- 
rated FROM  the  World,  with  a  constant  view  to  the  future  (espec- 
ially   THE    immediate    FUTURE)   OF    HiMSELF    AND    HiS    DiSCIPLES.      I3  :  I 

17  :  26. 
13.     Jesus  Manifests  the   Glory  of   His    Love  and  victorious  Life-  in  volun- 
tary SURRENDER  TO  Death  AT  THE   HANDS  OF  THE    Unbelieving    World ; 

AND    THE    Glory   OF    HiS    VICTORIOUS    Life    IN    THE    RESURRECTION,    PRODUC- 
ING THE  CLIMAX    OF  Belief.     (iS:i — 20:31.; 
Note. — B  is  here  put  down  for  convenience  of  reference.     For  discussion  of 
its  place  in  the  Analysis  see  note  at  chapter  18. 

Introduction  to  Chapters   13-20.     Motives  of  the  following  scenes,  13  :  1-3. 

1.  The  hour  has  come  for  Jesus  to  return  to  the  Father,  v.  i. 

2.  Jesus'  love  for  His  disciples,  v.  i. 

3.  This  return  accomplished  through  the  treachery  of  Judas,  and  the  opposition 

of  the  World  and  the  Devil,  v.  2. 

4.  Jesus'  consciousness  of  His  divine  mission,  dignity  and  destiny,  v.  3. 

.4.  Jesus  Manifests  His  Love  and  Life  in  Union  with  the  Father  to  those 
WHO  Love  Him  and,  joined  with  Him  in  Life-Union,  are  now  Separated 

FROM    THE     World,    WITH    A    CONSTANT     VIEW    TO    THE    FUTURE    (ESPECIALLY 
THE   IMMEDIATE    FUTURE)    OF    HiMSELF   AND    HiS    DiSCIPLES.      I3  :  1-^I7  :  26. 

1 .  Historical  introduction  to  the  words  of  Love  and  Life,  chapters  14-17.     13  : 4-38. 

a.  The  example  of  condescending  Love  in  lowly  service,  and  inculcation 

of  it,  vs.  4-17. 

b.  Final  separation  even  within  the  inner  circle,  vs.  18-30.     The  treach- 

ery of  one  is  announced.  A  deep  grief  to  Jesus'  love,  and  the  traitor, 
undisclosed  save  to  John,  departs  leaving  Jesus  alone  with  those 
who  love  Him. 

c.  Some  more  or  less  detached  sayings,  arising  from  the  occasion,  vs.  31-38. 

(i)  In  view  of  His  imminent  glorification  and  departure,  now 
rendered  certain  by  Judas'  withdrawal,  Jesus  exhorts  His 
disciples  to  mutual  love,  cf.  vs.  4-17.     Vs.  31-35. 

(2)  To  Peter's  profession  of  love  to  death,  Jesus  opposes  a 
prophecy  of  his  denial,  vs.  36-38. 

2.  Jesus  manifests  His  love  to  the  saddened  hearts  of   His  disciples,  in  words  of 

comfort  addressed  to  belief.     14  :  1-3 1. 

Note. — Vinet  called  chapters  14-16  a  divine  confusion,  but  an  attempt  is  here 
made  to  thread  the  maze.  These  are  merely  the  most  precious  fragments  of  a  simple 
childlike  conversation,  broken  by  question  and  answer.  An  easy  external  analysis 
may  be  constructed  by  making  the  breaks  at  the  questions.  We  think  that  John 
selects  and  arranges  the  material  on  a  profounder  plan. 

a.  By  and  by  they  shall  be  with   Him  in   His  Father's  house,  vs.  1-3. 

b.  He  Himself  is  the  way  to  the  Father,  vs.  4-6. 

(i)     For  he  who  has  seen  Him  has  seen  the  Father,  vs.  7-ioa. 
(2)     The  proof  is  in  His  divine  words  and  -works,  vs.  lob,  11. 

c.  Because  of  His  departure  the  disciples  shall  do  greater  ivorks  and  shall 

prevail  in  prayer,  vs.  12-14. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  431 

'A     Oil  the  ground  of  lovim^r  obedience,  anotlier  Advocate  will  be  >,'iviii. 

who  shall  abide  with  them  forever,  vs.  15-17. 
«••      lie  Himself  will   manifest    Himself  to  them  and  abide  with  them,  and 
love  them  and  so  will  the  Father.     The  condition  is  Iotiih,--  obed- 
ience.    The  \\o\y  Spirit  will  explain  all.     Vs.  18-26. 
/.     He  gives  them  His  peace  and  shows  them  reasons  even  for  joy.     His 
words  have  forearmed  their /^//V>4.    Vs.  27-31. 
3.     Jesus /«r/////i.sV.s- to  His  disciples  the  fulness  of  His   A>7'<%  as  a  ///.-utiion.     15: 
I — 16:  15. 

<t-  Under  the  tigure  of  vine  and  iiranches,  He  declares  that  there  exists 
a  //'/t-union  between  Himself  and  His  disciples  on  the  basis  of 
abiding.     There  will  be  pruning  indeed,  but  also  fruit.     Vs.  1-6. 

b.  Description,  conditions  and  results  of  abiding,  vs.  7-17. 

NoTK. — Probably  it  is  best  to  unravel  the  section  by  following  this  thread. 
(i)     Description  of  abiding. 

(rt)     His  words  abide  in  them,  v.  7. 
(^)     They  abide  in  His  love,  v.  9. 

(<-)     The  measure  of  His  love.     As  the  F'ather  hath  lozni 
Him,  v.  9,  He  lays  down  His  life  for  them,  v.  13. 
(2)     Conditions  of  abiding. 

Loving  obedience  to  Him,  v,  10,  and   mutual  loi'c  among 
themselves,  vs.  12,  17. 
(,3)     Results  of  abiding. 

(«)     Prevailing  prayer,  vs.   7,   16.     (^b)    Much  fruit,  vs. 

8,  16. 
(c)     His  joy  in  them,  v.  11.    (^)    They  are  His  intimate 
friends,  vs.  14-16. 

c.  They  are  so  much  one  with   Him  that  they  must   share   the   WorUVa 

hate  with  Him,  15  :  18 — 16  :  15.     Note.     This  might  be  analyzed  as 
one  of  the  results  of  abiding,  b  (3)  above. 

(i)     For  you  are  not  of  the   World,  as  I  am  not,  vs.  18-21. 

(2)  The   World's  hate  is  inexcusable  and  gratuitous  and  has  its 

root  in  opposition  to  the  Father.  The  testimony  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  the  disciples  will  be  given  in  the  face  of  such 
a  World.    Vs.  22-27. 

(3)  The  JFor/rf  will  excommunicate  and  kill  them,  because  of  its 

ignorance  of  the  Father  and  of  Christ.  His  words  are 
meant  to  forearm  them   in  view  of  His   departure.     16  :  1-5. 

(4)  But  just  on  account  of  Jesus'  departure,  the  Spirit  will  come, 

vs.  6-15. 

(a)     To  convict  the  world,  vs.  8-11. 

(^)     To  guide  the  disciples  into  all   truth,  thus  aiding 
them   in   their  testimony  to  the  world,   vs.    12-15, 
cf.  15  :27. 
4.     Closing  words  of  hope  and  warning.     Vs.  16-33. 

a.     They  shall  see  Him  again  with  never  ending  joy,  vs.  16-22. 
(i)     The  characteristics  of  that  time,  vs.  23-27. 

(rt)  There  will  be  a  new  relation  between  them  in  which 
they  shall  pray  to  the  Father  in  His  name  and  re- 
ceive, vs.  23,  24. 


432  THE  GOSPEL  OE  ST.  JOHN. 

{l>)     A  perfectly  clear  revelation  of  the  Father  and  His 
ioz>e  to  the  disciples,  vs.  25-27.     This  leads  up  to — 
d.     Jesus'  plain  declaration  about  His  coming  into  the  xvorld  and  return 
to  the  Father,  v.  28,  cf.  13  : 3. 

(i)     Accepted  bj  the  disciples  with  believing  joj,  vs.  29,  30. 
(«)     But  Jesus  prophesies  their  defection,  vs.  31,  32. 
c.     The  final  word  of  peace  and  victory,  v.  33. 
5.     Jesus'  Final  Prayer.     17:1-26. 

Note. — In  this  prayer,  Jesus  restates  and  breathes  to  the  Father  all  the 
thoughts  of  chapters  14-16.  It  is,  therefore,  not  an  addendum,  but  the  climax  of 
the  whole  section.  Much  repetition  demands  an  almost  topical  analysis,  gathering 
similar  thoughts,  under  one  head. 

a.  Prayer  for  His  own  glorification.      Glorify  Thou  Me,  v.  i,  with  the 

glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the  world  was,  v.  5.    Vs.  1-5. 
(i)     In  order  that  I  may  glorify  Thee,  v.  i. 
(2)     For,  («)  the  hour  has  come,  v.  i. 

(3)     This  glorification  necessary  to  His  universal  author- 
ity as  //'/e-giver,  v.  2. 
(c)     He  has  finished  the  work  given  Him.  v.  4. 
Transition  Verses,  6-8. 

Describing  (1)  the  work  Jesus  had  done  on  earth,  vs.  6a  and  8a,  and 
so  connecting  with  vs.  1-5,  especially  v.  4,  and  (2)  the  characteristics  of 
the  disciples  for  whom  He  is  about  to  pray,  vs.  6b,  7,  8b,  and  so  con- 
necting with  vs.  9-19.  (2)  is  by  far  the  major  chord,  and  in  any  analysis, 
if  choice  must  be  made,  vs.  6-8  must  go  with  d  rather  than  a.  Still  it  is 
best  to  represent  them  just  as  they  are,  transition  verses.  These  charac- 
teristics in  (2)  also  constitute  the  ground  of  the  subsequent  petitions. 

b.  Prayer  for  the  disciples,  vs.  9-19. 

(  i)     Grounds  of  the  prayer. 

(a)     They  are  mine  and  thine.     They  are  my  glory,  vs,. 

9,  10.      They  are  not  of  the  zvorld,  vs.  14,  16. 
(3)     Their  need  as  in  a  hostile  ivorld,  especially  in  view 
of  my  departure,  vs.  iia  (cf.  v.  12),  13a,  14,  16. 
(2)     Petitions. 

(«)     Keep  them   in  Thy  name  with   a  view  to   spiritual 

unity,  V.  lib. 
(^)     Keep  them  from  the  evil  while  in  the  world,  v.  14. 
(c)     Consecrate  them  in  Thy  truth,  v.  17,  with  a  view  to 
a  mission  like  mine,  vs.  18,  19. 

c.  Prayer  for  those  who  shall  believe  through   their  word,  that  they  may 

be  one  as  xve  are,  that   the  world  may  believe  that  Thou  hast  sent 
Me,  vs.  20-23. 

d.  Prayer  for  all  whom  Thou  has  given  to  Me,  that  they  may  be  with  Me 

in  ^ly  glory.     Vs.  25,  26  furnish  the  grounds  of  this  petition,  and 
restate  the  grounds  of  the  whole  prayer.    Vs.  24-26. 

B.  Jesus  Manifests  the  Glory  of  His  Love  and  victorious  Life  in  Vol- 
untary SURRENDER  TO  Death  at  the  hands  of  the  Unbelieving 
World;  and  the  Glory  of  His  victorious  Life  in  Resurrection, 
PRODUCING  the  CLIMAX  OF  Belief.     18:1 — 20:31. 


AN  ANAL  VSJS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  433 

NoTK. — Chapters  iS-20  appear  at  first  sitjlit  to  be  merelv  lustoriial.  1  Icrc 
the  strands  traeed  through  the  (iospel  seem  to  stop  short.  The  words,  life,  lif^ht, 
and  i^lory  disappear.  Lore,  truth,  /irlitf,  trstiinony,  world,  death  are  used,  but  do 
not  dominate  the  narrative  and  often  lose  their  characteristic  significance.  It 
seems  as  though  the  inner  and  higher  thought  had  been  abandoned  for  mere  exter- 
nal narrative.  This  is,  however,  only  seeming.  Though  the  word,  fflory,  dis- 
appears, the  i^lory  oi  Jesus  shines  through  every  scene.  In  dying  for  the  jieople 
( i8  :  14),  lie  victoriously  finishes  the  work  of  lore  given  Him  to  do  ( 19  :  '8-30),  and 
manifests  His  low  for  the  World.  His  lore  for  His  own  dominates  the  arrest  and 
the  trial  before  Annas,  and  shows  itself  on  the  cross  (19:25-27).  His  calmness, 
courage,  conscious  innocence,  voluntary-  submission  and  obedience  to  the  will  of 
(iod  clearly  understood  b^'  Him,  the  majesty  of  His  character,  in  other  words  the 
glory  of  His  victorious  Life  or  Spirit,  manifest  Him  as  Judge  of  His  judges,  and 
spiritual  King  of  all  men.  In  these  chapters,  the  manifestation  of  Jesus  as  Mes- 
siah, so  frequent  in  the  earlier  chapters  (i  :  1 1,  20,  32-34,  41,  49  ;  4  :  25  ;  7  :  41  ;  9  :  22  : 
II  :  27),  again  comes  to  the  front  as  it  naturally  would  in  this  historical  situation. 
He  appears  as  Messianic  King  for  the  Jews  (18:33-39;  19:3,  12-15,  19-21, — the 
King  of  Truth  for  the  Romans,  18  :  36,  37).  As  such  He  is  rejected  and  murdered 
b}- them,  and  in  the  act  they  accomplish  a  final  apostasy.  He  came  unto  His 
own  and  His  own  received  Him  not  (i:ii).  This  is  the  ultimate  issue  of  un- 
belief, and  the  condemnation,  the  Judgment,  of  the  World.  Bel  iej  appears  fitfully 
in  18  and  19,  but  only  in  contrast.  Its  full  bloom  is  seen  in  20.  Arrest,  trial, 
cross,  burial  are  all  lenses  through  which  the  glory  of  Jesus  shines.  Through 
them  the  Father  begins  to  glorify  the  Son  (12  :  31-33  ;  17  :  0-  ^e*^  remarks  intro- 
ductory to  chapter  18  in  Westcott  and  Godet. 

Chapters  18  and  19  are  sometimes  made  the  fourth  of  five  prime  divisions  of 
the  Gospel,  chapter  20  being  the  fifth.  We  shall  argue  strongly  against  such  a 
separation  of  chapter  20  at  that  point.  Whether  a  new  prime  division  is  to  be 
made  at  chapter  iS  depends  largely  on  the  point  of  view.  If  the  view-point  is 
merely  historical  and  external,  then  the  break  will  be  made  here,  as  the  change 
from  discourse  to  narrative,  from  the  inner  circle  of  love  to  the  hating  world  is 
obvipus  enough.  If,  however,  we  allow  the  manifestations  of  Jesus  to  rule  our 
analysis,  we  find  in  the  whole  section  13-20  the  supreme  manifestations  of  Jesus' 
love,  first  in  word  and  then  in  deed,  an  inner  and  an  outer  revelation.  Xor  are  the 
contrasts  between  the  attitudes  of  the  Believing  Company  and  the  great  hostile 
World,  one  full  of  love,  the  other  of  hate,  to  divide  the  sections,  nay,  they  knit 
them  together  in  one.  So  we  make  the  third  and  final  grand  division  13-20,  with 
a  deep  cleavage  at  18. 

I.     Jesus  manifests  the  (ilory  of  His  Love  and  victorious  Life  in  voluntary  surren- 
der to    Death   at  the  hands  of    the    IJnheliciing  World.     18:1 — 19:42. 

a.     The  story  of  the  arrest,  18:  1-12,  revealing — 

(i)     Jesus'    perfect  knowledge  of   the  immediate  future,  vs.  4,  11. 

(2)  His  love  protecting  His  disciples,  vs.  4-9. 

(3)  His  calm  superiority  to  His  foes,  vs.  4-6. 

(4)  His  voluntary  surrender  to  death,  according  to  the  Fathers 

will,  vs.  10-12. 

h.      I'he   Jewish  trial,  including  the  denials  of  Peter,  vs.  13-27,  revealing— 

( i)     Belief  and  love,  in  Peter,  at  their  lowest  ebb  (vs.  17,  18,  25-27) 

over  against  the  faithfulness  of  the  shadowy  John.  vs.  15,  16. 


434  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.JOHN. 

(2)  Unscrupulous  unbelief  cvAiXWy   bent  on  murder,  vs.  13,   14, 

19-24,  and  beginning  to  show  violence,  v.  22. 

(3)  The  openness  and  calmness  of  Jesus  in  reply,  vs.  20.  21,  23. 

(4)  His  love  protecting  His  disciples,  v.  19,  cf.  Jesus'  reply. 

c.  The  trial  before  Pilate,  18  :  28 — ^19  :  16,  revealing — 

(i)  The  unbelief  of  the  Jews,  rejecting  and  demanding  the  death 
of  their  Messianic  King,  whose  claim  to  be  the  Son  of  God 
they  are  forced  to  declare,  19  :  7,  preferring  a  robber,  18  140, 
and  finally  apostatizing  from  Jehovah  by  denying  any  king 
but  Caesar,  19  :  15. 

(2)  The  ^lory  of  Jesus  in  His  words  and  His  silences.  His  calm- 

ness in  trial,  and  His  patience  in  suffering. 

{a)     His  £-lo>y  as  spiritual  King  in  the  realm  of  truth, 

18:36,37- 
{J}~)     A  King  despite,  indeed  in  the  midst  of,  scourging 
and  mockery,  19  :  1-3,  and   shouts  of  hatred,  19  :6. 

(c)  As  Pilate's  Master  and  Jndg-e,  19:  11 — («),  (3)  and 

(c) — in  contrast    with   the   vacillating   and  finally 
beaten  governor. 

(d)  As  perfectly  innocent  of  every  wrong,  18  :  39;   19  :  4. 

(3)  All  this  is  in  accord  with  God's  will  and  vokmtary  on  Jesus' 

part,  18  :  31,  32  ;   19  :  11. 

d.  The  crucifixion  and  death,  19:  17-37,  showing — 

(i)  How  Jesus  gets  His  rightful  title  on  the  cross,  despite  objec- 
tion by  the  Jews,  vs.  19-22. 

(2)  How  all  the  incidents  of  the  crucifixion  fulfilled  God's  will, 
:  vs.  23,  24,  28,  36,  37. 

(3)  Jesus,  still  master  of  the  situation,  lovitig  and  beloved,  vs. 

25-27- 

(4)  Jesus    finishing    His    God-given    mission   in    suffering  and 

death,  vs.  17,  18,  28-30. 
Note. — (i)  (2)  (4)  all    show  defeat    of  the  Jews  and  victory  of 
Jesus  even  on  the  cross. 

e.  The  burial,  19  :  38-42,  showing — 

(i)     How    belief  grows  strong  in    the  darkest  hour.     Believers 
come  forth  from  the  very  ranks  of  the  Sanhedrin  to  bury 
Him,  vs.  38,  39. 
(2)     The  beginning  of  Jesus'  exaltation.     He  has  befitting  burial, 
taken  down  from    the    cross  with  loving    hands,    swathed 
with  clean    linen  and    costly    spices,  bviried    in    the    unpol- 
luted tomb  by  rulers  of  Israel. 
2.     Jesus  in  Love  manifests  the  Glory  of  His  victorious  I^ifc  in  Resurrection,  pro- 
ducing the  climax  of  ^e//e/".    20:1-31.    This  the  last  sign,  20  :  30;  cf.  2:18-21. 
Note. — Chapter  20  is  to  be  taken  as  the  second  part  of  a  division,   18-20.     18 
and  19  tell  the  climax  of   Utibelief;  20  tells  the  climax  of  Belief     They  are  two 
halves  of  one  whole.     Still,  through  the  halves  run  many  connecting  strands.     The 
note  of  victorious  life  is  not  absent  from   18-19,  cf-  the  analysis.     Even  the  cross 
witnesses  the  beginning  of  victory,  and  the  burial  is  the  first  step  in  the  exaltation. 
The.  glorifcation  of  Christ  (12  :  28,  32  ;  13  :  31,  32  ;  17  :  i)  includes  both  death  and 
resurrection,  and  what  Christ  has  joined  in  this  word,  we  must  not  put  asunder. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  435 

Chapter  20   is  the  climax   and  crowiiinf,' jov  ot  the  whole  section   hetjinniiig  with 
chapter  13,  which  is  so  sombre  with  death  for  the  most  part. 

a.     The  facts  of  the  Resurrection  morning,  20:  1-18,  showing 

(i)     How   Peter  and  John  saw   the  empty  tomb  and   the   grave 
^clothes,  and  how  John  came  at  last  to  perfect  lielicf,  vs.  i-io. 
(2)     How   Mary's  sorrowing  Love  was   turned  into  adoring  and 
triumphant  Belief  hy  Jesus'  appearance  to  her,  vs.    11-18. 
See  Professor  Riggs'  Outlines  for  v.  17. 
f>.     The  facts  of  the  Resurrection  evening,  showing  how  the  saddened  and 
fearful  Eleven  came  to  Belief,  peace,  joy,  purpose  and  power  through 
the  appearance  of  the  j?-A>/-//ir"<Y/ Jesus  to  them,  vs.  19-2^. 
r.     The  facts  of  the  meeting  with  Thomas,  showing  how  the  last  doubter 
among  the  Eleven  came  in  Belief  io  utter  the  supreme  declaration, 
"My  Lord  and  my  God",  through  the  appearance  of  Jesus  to  him, 
vs.  24-29. 

Note. — "  My  Lord  and  my  God"  is  the  climax  of  the  Gospel,  to  which  the 
author  has  led  us  up  through  its  whole  development.  The  disciples, 
through  their  experience  with  Jesus,  come  at  last  to  believe  not  onlv 
that  He  whose  glory  they  had  beheld  was  the  Word  made  flesh, 
I  :  14,  but  that  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God",  1:1.  So  the  Gospel  at  the 
end  returns  to  its  beginning,  and  all  that  lies  between  is  to  be  inter- 
preted in  view  of  this  beginning  and  this  end. 

Epilogue. — Final  statement  of  the  purpose  of  the  Gospel ;  Beliefin  Jesus 
as  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God,  and  through  Belief,  Life  in  His 
name,  vs.  30-31. 

Note. — In  these  verses  we  find  again  the  characteristic  and  significant 
words  and  phrases  in  profusion. 


Appendix.     21  :  1-25. 

Note. — This  is  evidently,  cf.  20  :  30,  31,  an  appendix,  an  afterthought,  and  has 
its  motive  in  the  correction  of  the  false  report  that  John  should  not  die  before  the 
Second  Coming,  21  :  21-23.  It  seems  at  first  purely  historical,  like  chapters  18-20, 
and  like  them,  lacks  almost  entirely  John's  significant  and  characteristic  words. 
Has  it  then  no  inner  meaning,  such  as  we  have  found  in  the  Gospel  hitherto.''  The 
presumption  is  all  the  other  way.  The  motive  in  writing  was  the  correction  of  a 
false  report,  that  correction  led  to  the  narration  of  the  conversation  from  which  the 
report  started,  and  that  conversation  called  up  the  scene  and  the  circumstances. 
This  scene  and  Christ's  words  did  not  merely  seem  significant  to  John  ;  like  all  the 
others  recorded  in  the  Gospel,  they  were  actually  full  o/' deep  meaning.  So  the 
fishing  scene  is  more  than  the  annals  of  a  miraculous  catch  (cf.  L.  5:  i-ii, 
especially  v.  10),  and  the  other  scenes  likewise.  To  be  sure,  we  lose  the  strands 
which  run  through  the  Gospel.  Both  I'nbelief  and  Belief  have  reached  their 
climax  ;  the  one  in  apostasy,  the  other  in  clear  insight  into  the  deity  of  Christ,  and 
there  is  nothing  more  to  be  said  in  those  lines.  The  scenes  of  chapter  21  deal 
with  the  future  work  of  the  church. 

I.     The  fishing  scene,  vs.  i-i^,  manifestinir,  v.  i, — 

a.     The  presence  of  the  risen  Lord  with  His  disciples  in  their 
daily  toil. 


436  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

h.     His   loving  direction  of  their  labors  to  a  successful  issue,. 

cf.  15  :  5. 
c.     His  gracious  supply  of  their  need. 

2.  The  reinstatement  of  Peter,  his  work  and  his  end  (cf.  his  boasts, 

^3  '■  S^^S^  and  his  denials,  18  :  15-27),  manifesting  the  Lord's 
loving,  jet  thorough  dealing  with  Peter's  sin,  and  His  gracious 
restoration  of  him.  Deeply  showing  the  work  of  the  church, 
the  perils  it  must  encounter,  and  its  one  duty  of  following  Jesus,. 
vs.  15-19. 

3.  How  the  false  report  about  John  arose.     Its  correction.    Vs.  20-23^ 
Final  attestation  by  another  hand  (.''),  vs.  24,  25. 


Note. — In  finishing  this  analj'sis,  involving  a  careful  review  of  the  inner 
thought  and  construction  of  the  whole  Gospel,  I  cannot  refrain  from  declaring  my 
increased  belief  in  its  trustworthiness  as  history.  Recognizing  to  the  full  its  phil- 
osophic view-point,  I  have  ever  fovind  the  historical  situation  impregnating,  modify- 
ing, interrupting  the  philosophical  trend.  This  is  just  what  would  naturally  occur 
in  writing  with  the  design  of  presenting  the  inner  meaning  of  a  real  history. 

FREDERICK  L.  ANDERSON. 

July  I,  1904. 


SUGGESTIVE  STUDIES  AND  REFERENCES, 

Prchessor  oi   BiiiiJCM     I)oi;.MArus  and  Kthics,  IIariiokk  Thk<)|.oi;i<:ai. 
Sk.minarv,  IIaktiurd,  C^onn. 

CHAPTER   I. 

1.  TnK   WoKi).      Find  out  His  qualities  here.      Compare  ch.   17. 

2.  TnK  P'l.Ksii.  Trace  out  its  fellowship  witli  us.  Compare  llie  svmpatliv 
'and  help  in  chs.  5,  6,  9,  11.  ete. 

3.  The  Revelation.  To  tind  its  content  weijjh  and  open  the  words  "  glory  ", 
^' grace",  "truth",  the  '"Father  declared".  Trace  parallels  to  these  themes  in 
chs,  3,  4,  5,  6.  u,  17. 

4.  The  Sonshu' — "made  sons  of  God".  Studv  the  agent,  the  birth,  the 
faith,  the  life.  Compare  with  this  gift  of  sonship,  the  gift  of  ••eternal  life"  in 
<:h.  6. 

5.  John  tmk  Witness.  His  traits.  His  task.  His  fortime.  Compare  chs. 
3:22-36;  5  :35. 

6.  John's  Te.stimony.  Christ's  enduement,  v.  32.  Christ's  work  :  bearing 
•world-sin,  v.  29;  baptizing  with  the   Holy  Ghost,  \.  33.     Compare  chs.  3:  14-16; 

10  :  II  ;  12  :  32,  and  7:  38,  39;  16  :  7. 

7.  The  Tr.^geijv  in  vs.  10,  11.  Trace  its  development  in  chs.  5,  6,  7,  8,  9, 
lo,  and  its  awful  end  in  ch.  19. 

CHAPTER  II. 

1.  Christ's  Sociai.  Fellowship.  See  other  instances  in  chs.  6,  11.  13,  21. 
Trace  out  the  strength  of  this  social  impulse  in  Christ. 

2.  The  Making  ok  the  Water  into  Wine.  Study  this  as  an  illustration 
■of  ch.  I  .-3,  Find  other  illustrations  in  chs,  5,  6,  9,  11.  Study  here  the  meaning 
of  His  claim  to  be  the  "  Bread  of  Life",  ch,  6,  and  of  the  fact  of  His  resurrection, 

3.  The  Passover,  \.  13.  Study  meaning  of  Christ's  attendance  at  Jewish 
feasts.     Compare  chs,  5:1:6:4:7:2;  10  :  22  :  I2  :  12, 

4.  Cleansin(9  the  Temple.  Note  how  this  act  honors  the  temple.  What 
was  Christ's  aim  ?  What  did  the  temple  wc(i»  ^  How  deep  is  the  contrast  between 
trade  for  gain,  am!  worship  with  jiravcr  and  sacrifice.' 

CHAPTER  III, 

1,  Study  Nicode.mls,  He  is  curious,  but  dull;  a  teacher,  but  crude;  a 
leader,  but  inert;  religious,  but  unbelieving;  inquiring,  but  obdurate.  Compare 
and  contrast  him  with  other  characters  in  the  book, 

2,  The  World,  Gather  all  that  is  said  of  it  in  this  chapter.  Trace  the 
same  study  through  the  Gospel. 

3.  God's  Giet,  v,  16,  Search  out  (jod's  part  in  providing  Christ,  especially 
ch.  17. 

4.  The   Spirit-IJikth.    v.  5.      Show   connection  of   this   with    teaching   about 

437 


438  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

"living"   water    in   ch.   4,    bread  of   "life"   in    ch.  6,   the    spirit-fountain    in   ch. 
7:37,  etc. 

5.  John's  Witness,  vs.  22-36.  John's  ministry.  Christ's  primacy.  John's 
moral  kinship  with  Christ. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Describe  this  Woman.  Coy,  cold,  narrow,  shallow,  crude,  pliant. 
Compare  and  contrast  her  with  other  women  in  this  Gospel. 

2.  Study  into  the  Samaritan-Jewish  Feud.  Their  view,  the  Jew's  view, 
Christ's  view,  their  changed  view,  its  real  roots.  Find  signs  of  kindred  narrow- 
ness and  enmity  in  this  Gospel. 

3.  Christ's  Breadth,  v.  42.  Define  this  carefully  here.  Cite  signs  of  it 
elsewhere. 

4.  Christ's  Solitude.     None  could  appreciate  His  love  and  zeal,  v.  27. 

5.  The  Woman's  Sin.  Her  shyness.  Christ's  sharpness.  Find  other  sim- 
ilar instances. 

6.  Spiritual  Worship  of  One  Spirit  God.  Contrast  false,  unspiritual 
religion  in  chs.  2,  3,  5,  6,  9. 

7.  Sowing  and  Reaping.  Division  of  labor.  Unison  in  joy.  Compare  ch. 
3  :  28-30. 

CHAPTER  V. 

1.  A  Case  of  Extreme  Need.  Compare  other  sorts  of  need  in  chs. 
6,  9,   u. 

2.  Jewish  Sabbath  Rules.  A  lifeless,  inhuman  code.  Compare  signs  of 
cold  formality  in  chs.  2,  3,  6,  9,  18  :  28. 

3.  The  Contest.  Define  closely  the  charge.  Trace  carefully  the  defence 
and  counter  charge.  Study  out  the  power  of  the  argument  in  the  words  Father, 
Son  and  Love.     Compare  other  contests  in  chs.  8,  10  and  18. 

4.  Scan  Christ's  evidence,  vs.  31-39.  Detect  the  nature  oi  His  proofs.  Com- 
pare the  nature  of  His  arguments  in  chs.  7,  8  and  10. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  Study  the  physical  need  and  the  physical  supply,  comparing  similar 
instances  in  chs.  2,  4,  5,  9,  11.  Note  how  fundamental  and  proper  all  these  cases 
are. 

2.  Study  the  parallel  spiritual  need  and  the  spiritual  supply,  comparing  chs. 
3,  4,  II  and  16. 

3.  Take  the  outside  measure  of  Christ's  own  consciousness  in  this  chapter 
noting  specially  v.  51,  and  marking  his  repetitions.  Trace  this  same  consciousness 
in  chs.  2,  3,  4,  5,  etc. 

4.  Make  special  study  of  the  arguments  on  both  sides  in  this  chapter.  Define 
sharply  all  the  prime  postulates.  What  was  to  be  proven  on  Christ's  side?  What 
was  the  final  evidence.'     Study  similarly  the  arguments  in  chs.  3,  5,  9,  11,  21. 

5.  Frame  briefest  possible  definition  of  Christ's  worth  and  work  in  terms  of 
this  chapter.     Then  cite  as  many  synonyms  for  this  as  the  chapter  will  yield. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

I.  The  Untaught  Teacher,  v.  15.  Look  into  Christ's  absolute  originality. 
See  this  in  chs.  5,  6,  I2,  16,  18. 


SUGGESTIVE  STUDIES  AND  REFERENCES.  439 

2.  The  Trlk  Tkacmkr,  v.  iS.  Look  into  Christ's  emphasis  on  gcmiincnchs. 
verity,  fidelity  to  His  coinniission.  See  this  fine  ami  jealons  and  supreme  appreci- 
ation of  Truth  in  the  talk  with  Pilate,  and  in  the  parables  of  the  "  true"  vine  anti 
the  "good"  Shepherd. 

3.  The  Bold  Tkaciikk,  v.  14,  vs.  J5.  j6.  Nhirk  this  same  line  courage  in 
chs.  10,  II,  iS. 

4.  Thk  ExiiAisTLESs  AND  Satisiyincj  Tkaihkr.  V.  37.  Compare  ch.  4, 
14-16. 

5.  The  Divine  Teacher,  v.  16,  vs.  28.  29.  Find  signs  throughout  the 
Gospel  of  Christ's  claim  to  speak  for  God. 

6.  Obdirate  Pi'PiLS,  V.  47.  Note  their  presence  and  attitude  in  chs.  5,  6,  8, 
9,  10. 

CHAPTER  VHI. 
I.     Study  into  the  E.mphasis  ipon  "Truth"  in  thls  Chatter. 

a.     The  True  Light,  v.   12.     Note  the  phrases,  light  of  the  "world". 

light  of  "life".     Weigh  them. 
h.     The  True  Witness,  v.  14.     Look  into  the  argument  here. 

c.  The  True  Judge,  v.  16.     Test  the  link  of  logic  here  also. 

d.  The  True  Prophet,  v.  28.     Note  the  ground  here. 

c.     The  True  Emancipation,  vs.  31,  32.     Here  is  the  core  of  thischapter, 

and  the  well-head  of  all  good  morals. 
/.     The  True  Son  of  God,  vs.  54,  55.     See  how  ultimate  an  avowal  this 
is  in  this  whole  argument. 
In  all  these  assertions   see   how  sure,  and   plain,  and  strong,   and  calm    the 
Master  is.     Then  mark  the  relation  of  these  qualities  to  this  "  Truth  ". 

1.     Study  into  the  State  and  Plight  of  His  Enemies. 

a.  They  are  in  Darkness  and  Ignorance  of  Vital  Truth,  v.  19. 

b.  They  are  in  Error,  v.  13,  vs.  52,  53. 

c.  They  are  in  Sin  of  Unbelief,  vs.  24,  46;  Murder,  v.  40. 

d.  They  are  in  Bonds,  v.  34. 

e.  They  are  in  Hopeless  Doom  and  Guilt,  v.  21. 

f.  They  are  of  the  Lineage  of  the  Lord  of  Murder  and  Lies,  v.  44. 

In  all  this  chapter  see  how  set,  and  hard,  and  blind,  and  bad  these  antagonists 
are. 

3.  See  in  this  chapter  the  typical  and  final  contest.  It  is  light  vs.  darkness, 
truth  vs.  lies,  love  vs.  hate,  sure  testimony  vs.  unbelief,  Christ  vs.  Satan.  Note 
how  the  same  battle  is  set  in  chs.  3,  5,  6,  7,  9,  10,  11,  12,  18. 

CHAFFER  IX. 

I.     Study  Christ  Here. 

a.  His  Insight,  v.  3.     Here   is  a   glint  of  a   real    philosophy   ot    life. 

Read  8 :  12,  the  words  occasioned  by  the  visit  of  the  Greeks  in  ch. 
12,  and  the  conversation  with  Pilate  in  the  light  of  this. 

b.  His  courage,  v.  7.     Braving  sacred,  religious  traditions. 

c.  His  mingled  Judgment  and  Tenderness,  vs.  35-41. 
1.     Study  the  Blind  Man. 

a.     His  condition   before  the   healing— a   blind   beggar   in   the   Orient. 
Weigh  each  word.     Feel  his  sad  plight. 


440  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

b.  Mark  the  oiUburst  of  his  latent  manhood  after  the  healing.     This  is 

splendid.     Ponder  Avhat  it  means. 

c.  Try  to  conceise  his  suhsequent  history. 

3.  Study  the  Parents,    noting  their  cautious   fear,  how  it  prevails   above 
parental  solicitude  and  jov. 

4.  The  Pharisees. 

a.  Their  bondage  to  rude  rules. 

b.  Their  ideas  about  Christ. 

c.  Their  excommunication  of  the  man.     Trace  the  arguments.     Esti- 

mate their  strength,  their  futility.     Define  their  views  of  character, 
of  authority,  of  government. 

d.  Outline  carefully  and  in  detail  Christ's  view  of  them. 

5.  Compare  chs.  5  and  11  along  these  lines. 

CHAPTER  X. 

1.  The  Shepherd  Parable,  vs.  1-2 i. 

a.  The  Shepherd's  duties  :     to  guard,  feed,  save. 

b.  The   Shepherd's   traits  :     watchful,    faithful,  bold,   good,  sacrificial, 

familiar. 

c.  The   Shepherd's   method  :     folding,  calling,   leading,   knowing  each 

one. 

d.  The  Shepherd's  cost  and  reward. 

e.  The  Shepherd  s  counterfeit  :     heedless,  thievish,  sly,  timid,  strange, 

destructive. 
f.     Special  study  of  Christ  as  Shepherd:     His  lordliness.  His  devoted- 

ness.  His  defamation,  His  honor  from  God. 
J,''.     The  sheep — making  your  description  correlate  carefully  with  that  of 

the  Shepherd;  their  need  of  protection,  guidance,  etc.,  and  their 

peril  from  neglect,  attack,  etc. 

2.  Show  how  the  scheme  of  this  parable  comprehends  the  entire  career  and 
ministry  of  Christ.     This  whole  Gospel  is  here  in  a  beautiful  miniature. 

3.  See  how'  the  whole  is  condensed  again  in  vs.  22-39.     Spoken  \ery  likely  at 
a  different  time. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

A  Study  of  Christ's  Splendid  Mastery    of   all    things    in    the    sickness, 
death  and  resurrection  of  Lazarus. 

a.  His  mastery  in  interpretation  of  meaning  of  disease,  v.  4. 

b.  His  mastery  of  the  order  of  events  in  delay,  v.  6. 

c.  His  mastery  of  peril  in  a  calm  daring,  vs.  8-16. 

d.  His  mastery  evinced  in  majestic  self-consciousness,  \ .  25. 

e.  His  mastery  of  the  future  in  His  promise,  v.  23. 

f.  His  mastery  of  others  in  authority,  vs.  39,  40. 

g.  His  master}'  in  supplication,  \'.  41. 

h.     His  mastery  over  death  in  resurrection,  vs.  43,  44. 

/.      His  mastery  over  the  Sanhedrin,  driving  them  to  desperation,  vs. 

47-.'53- 
/.     His  mastery  of  the  final  crisis  by  flight  and  hiding,  v.  54. 

See  how  in  this  chapter  Christ  forced  and  yet  held  in  full  control  the  Phari- 
sees' fear  and  hate.     Compare  chs.  5,  10,  12  :  12-19. 


SUGGESTIVE  STUDIES  AND  REFERENCES.  441 

CHAPTER  XII. 

I.     Thk  MiNiii.iNi;  t)K  lIoNKY  AND  G.M.i,  IN  Christ's  Loi  ,  vs.  i-ii  ;  anointed, 
quarreled  over,  hvinted.     See  how  their  enmity  is  the  outjjrowth  of  His  friendliness. 
Study  His  companionabloness.     It  is  ideal.     Watch  how  He  cherished  friendship. 
Hut  see  how  hate  smites  Him  in  the  midst  of  His  joy.     1  lis  lot  was  always  a  medley. 
1.     Thk  Triimpmant  Entry,  vs.  12-19. 
a.     Mark  its  engaging  gentleness. 
/'.     Note  its  matchless  daring. 
<•.     Estimate  its  compelling  energ\ . 
</.      Study  the  act  as  the  culmination  of  all  tiie  series  of  events  from  the 

sending  of  the  Seventy. 
e.     Discern  how  rcsistlessly  it  bears  on  towards  the  cross. 
3.     Thk  Rkmarks  at  thk  Visit  ok  thk  Grkkks,  vs.  20-36.     Here  again   is 
profound  philosophy. 

a.  Its  occasion — a  visit  from  aliens. 

b.  Its  statement  in  parabolic  form,  v.  24. 

c.  Its  illustration  in  Christ,  vs.  32-33. 

d.  Its  application  to  disciples,  vs.  J5.  26. 

e.  Its  agony,  v.  27. 
/.     Its  conflict,  V.  31. 

§:■     Its  rewards — fruit,  v.  24;  life,  v.  25;  fellowship.  \.  26:  honor,  v.  z(i; 
glory,  V.  28;   world  conquest,  v.  32. 
Here  again  is  the  whole  Gospel  in  brief.     Show  this  true. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
An  All-Rounu  Study  ok  Lovk. 

1.  The  Blkssedness  ok  its  IkwinLE  Ministriks — The  feet  washing.  Note 
the  contrasts  here  in  the  petty  jealousies  over  scant  worthiness  in  the  disciples,  and 
the  easv  humbling  of  a  mighty  dignity  in  Christ.  Keep  in  sight  the  near-impend- 
ing sacrifice  and  ascension,  vs.  1-20. 

2.  The  Awkiti.  Havoc  of  Love's  Absence — The  outrageous  betraval,  vs. 
21-30.  Study  into  its  easy  action,  its  essential  abhorrence  (what  are  its  marks?) 
and  its  Satanic  inspiration.     Can  you  trace  its  infection  still  1 

3.  The  V.vlidity  ok  Lovk  as  the  new  and  final  counsel  and  command  of 
Christ,  vs.  31-38. 

a.  Study  it  in  view  of  Christ's  glory,  vs.  31,  32. 

b.  Study  it  in  view  of  Christ's  absence,  v.  33. 
r.     Study  its  adequacy  for  world-witness,  v.  35. 

Compare  this  paragraph  with  ch.  17. 

CHAI^l'ER  XI\  . 

1.  MiNi>  the  Great  Themes.  God,  Christ,  (iod  in  Christ,  Christ  in  God, 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  mansions,  prayer,  peace,  life,  the  greater  works,  the  mansion- 
ing  together  of  Father  and  Son  and  disciple. 

Study  each  theme  searchingly,  e.  g.  : 

2.  The  Disciple.  His  obedience,  his  love,  his  prayer,  his  insight,  his  works, 
his  earthly  tranquillity,  his  heavenly  home,  his  companionship  with  (ind  and  Christ 
and  the  Holy  Spirit. 

3.  The   Hoi-V  Si'IRIt.      His  full  equii)ment  to  do  Christ's  work,   liis  mission 


442  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

of  solace  and  defence  and  tuition  and  grace,  his  wealth  of  knowledge  and  goodness, 
his  deep  indwelling,  his  respect  for  Christ. 

So  explore  all  these  themes.     Full  tides  abound  in  this  chapter. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

1.  The  Vine.     Vs.  1-17. 

«)  Study  until  you  can  name  and  sharply  define  each^«;Y  of  this  para- 
ble. 

b^  Study  until  you  can  see  what  Christ  was  «/,  what  was  His  aim, 
what  it  all  means. 

(")     Study  until  you  warm  with  admiration  of  Christ's  skill. 

2.  Vs.  iS-23. 

a)  The  World.  Ignorant  of  God,  hating  God,  hating  Christ,  hating 
Christ's  elect,  but  stripped  of  all  excuse.  Study  in  particular  into  hate,  its 
natvire,  its  genius,  its  propensity,  its  fruitage. 

b)  Christ.  Stud}-  His  deep  insight.  His  plainness,  His  innocence. 
His  intrepidity.  Try  to  sense  His  poise  and  beauty  of  character.  See  how 
all  His  radiance  is  heightened  by  all  the  world's  abhorrent  iniquity. 

c)  Trace  out  how  other  scenes   in  this   Gospel  brought  out  just  these 
fine  qualities. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

1.  Vs.  1-16. 

a)  Get  an  outline  of  Christ's  full  prevision. 

b)  Mark  His  frankness  in  disclosing  to  His  band  their  coming  lot» 
excommunication,  offense,  death. 

c)  His  careful  thoughtfulness,  to  forewarn,  fortify,  provide,  re-assure, 
adapt  teachings  to  capacity  and  needs. 

d)  His  triumphant  calm.  His  wajs  are  orderly  and  timely ;  He 
handles  like  a  real  master  the  ultimates — righteousness,  sin,  judgment, 
faith,  Satan,  God;  He  makes  full  unfolding  of  the  Spirit's  work. 

2.  Now  see  how  these  features  unfold  through  the  rest  of  the  chapter. 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

1.  Note  Christ's  Attitude — eyes  lifted  up  to  heaven. 

2.  His  Logic — See  how  He  argues. 

3.  His  Facts.     List  His  statements.     They  constitute  most  of  the  prayer. 

4.  His  Petitions.     Get  them  exactly.     They  are  surprisingly  few. 

V  His  Momentum.  Try  to  measure  the  passion,  the  eagerness,  the  pres- 
sure, the  onset  of  the  prayer. 

6.  His  Faith.     Just  what  was  Christ  trying  and  expecting  to  do.-' 

7.  His  Outlook.  Try  to  get  His  range.  What  was  in  His  eye.''  Take  the 
girth  of  these  words:  "truth",  "belief",  "life",  "world",  "evil",  "glory", 
those  little  words  "  in  "  and  "  one  "  in  v.  23. 

8.  Describe  the  inner  and  outer  aspect  of  this  prayer.  Is  it  mostly  radiant,  or 
does  it  stand  in  shadows.''     Are  its  inner  deeps  tranquil  or  troubled  } 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
I.     The    Arrest.     Measure   all    the    indignity   of   that    "binding".       Study 
Christ's  majesty  and  beauty,  and  pity  and  patience  in  it.     Look  within  His  mind. 
Find   His   point  of  view.     What  would  He   be  thinking  of  the  manacles,  of  the 
soldiers,  of  the  Jews,  of  the  disciples,  of  Himself,  of  God.? 


SUGGESTIVE  STUDIES  AND  REFERENCES.  443 

2.  Peter's  Denial.  There  were  reasons  for  this.  Try  to  timl  ihiin  out. 
What  was  Peter's  philosophy,  point  of  view,  standard  of  judgment .' 

3.  Before  the  High  Priest.  Name  the  essentials  of  a  proper,  judicial 
procedure.  Did  the  high  priest //r/c/zf/  to  recognize  them  .'  In  what  respect  was 
he  unfair.'' 

4.  Before  Pii.ate. 

rt)     Study  that  little  quarrel  between  Pilate  and  the  Jews. 

b)  Explore   that  conversation   between    Pilate  and  Christ.     What  was 
the  secret  of  Christ's  art  here?     What  main  idea  was  in  Pilate's  mind.' 

c)  How  many  qualities  of  "Truth"  can  you  name? 
(i)     How  many  qualities  of  Christ  can  you  name? 

e)  How  many  qualities  of  Pilate  can  you  name? 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

1.  Make  as  full  a  description  as  you  can  of  Christ  with  the  crown  of  thorns, 
or  while  being  scourged. 

2.  How  manifest  was  Christ's  innocence? 

3.  What  different  reasons  can  you  suggest  for  Christ's  silence  ? 

4.  See  if  you  can  explain  /"«//v  the  High  Priest's  rage. 

5.  Describe  the  weakness  and  the  power  of  a  "  throng". 

6.  List  all  Christ's  burdens  on  the  cross. 

7.  The  soldiers — how  does  a  soldier's  life  in  arms  affect  his  manhood? 

8.  See  how  far  you  can  define  "  death  "  as  endured  by  Christ. 

9.  Write  a  contrast  of  the  two  scenes  :  the  Crucifixion,  and  the  Burial  of 
Christ. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

1.  Name  the  traits  displayed  by  the  disciples  at  the  tomb — as  eagerness,  sor- 
row, love,  ignorance,  wonder,  timidity,  honesty,  confusion,  unbelief.     Probe  each. 

2.  Study  these  things  together — the  tomb,  its  order,  the  angels,  the  fact  of 
the  resurrection.     Find  out  the  nature  of  this  whole  transaction. 

3.  Hold  together  the  risen  Lord's  familiarity  and  majesty.  His  triumph  and 
tenderness,  His  authority  and  companionship.  Look  deeply  into  each.  Bring 
them  all  to  blend. 

4.  Note  Christ's  themes — the  Father,  His  brethren,  the  ascension.  His 
wounds,  His  own  identity,  the  mission  of  the  Spirit,  sin,  faith,  forgiveness, 
peace. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

1.  The  Morning  Meal. 

«)     Dwell  upon  the  disciples'  futile  toil. 
A)     Ponder  the  Master's  efficiency. 

c)  Weigh  Christ's  concern  for  men's  bodily  needs.     Cite  other  cases 

d)  Study  the  Master  at  the  meal.     Did  He  eat?     How  would  you  char- 
acterize, in  general,  Christ's  view  of  bodily  comforts? 

2.  The  Searching  of  Peter. 

rt)     Contrast  the   Christ  and  the    Peter  of  this  chapter   with   the  Christ 
and  the  Peter  of  ch.  18. 

A)     Study  Peter's  pliability,  caution,  devotion. 

f)  Study  Christ's  insight,  insistence,  frankness,  supremacy. 
d)     Study  love— its  nature,  its  value,  its  energy,  its  etliciency. 


*THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO   ST.  JOHN. 
ba^   ri^:^'.  henry   g.  -weston,  t>.  r>.,  i.l.  d., 

Presidicnt  of  Ckozer  Theological  Seminary,  Chester,  Penn. 

The  Gospel  of  John  is  the  Gospel  of  the  manifestation  of  Christ.  The  opening 
sentences  glow  with  that  ineffable  Light  which  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  overhung  the 
Mercy  Seat  between  the  cherubim:  we  behold  "  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth"  (i  :  14).  John  begins  where  the 
other  evangelists  end,  with  the  rejection  of  Christ  by  the  Jewish  people  :  ••  He 
came  unto  His  own  and  His  own  received  Him  not"  (i:  11).  Throughout  the 
Gospel  the  Jews  and  Jesus  are  arrayed  against  each  other  in  uncompromising 
hostility.  In  the  Synoptic  Gospels  all  Christ's  intercourse  with  His  disciples 
until  His  last  journey-  to  Jerusalem  is  designed  to  answer  the  question,  Who  is  the 
Son  of  Man  (Matt.  16  :  15  ;  Mark  8  :  29;  Luke  9  :  20)  ?  The  nature  and  person  of 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  the  living  God  having  been  revealed.  He  announces  for  the 
first  time  the  method  of  redemption,  by  His  death,  burial  and  resurrection  (Matt. 
16  :2i;  Mark  8:31;  Luke  9:22).  But  John's  Gospel  begins  with  the  declaration 
of  Christ's  divine  character  and  atoning  work;  in  the  first  chapter  He  is  the  Lamb 
-of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  (i  :  29) ;  on  Him  the  angels  of  God 
are  ascending  and  descending  (i  :5i)  :  He  declares  the  character  and  secret  actions 
of  Nathanael  (i  :  47-50);  He  needs  not  that  any  should  tell  Him  of  man,  for  He 
knows  what  is  in  man  (  2  :  25);  He  is  the  Son  of  Man  who  came  down  from  Hea%en 
and  is  in  Heaven  (  3  :  13  )•  The  first  miracle  which  John  records  is  the  Marriage- 
feast  (2  ;  11);  the  first  public  act  the  cleansing  of  the  Temple  (2:  16)  ;  the  first  dis- 
<;ourse  the  revelation  of  the  Heavenlies  (3:12); — all  pertaining  to  an  order  of 
things  which  comes  only  at  the  close  of  the  other  Gospels.  In  Christ's  discourses 
to  the  Jews,  in  His  prayer  recorded  in  chapter  17,  in  the  account  of  the  crucifixion, 
the  point  of  view  is  that  of  a  finished  work.  The  death  on  the  cross  is  not  so 
much  the  process  of  dying  as  the  results  of  death;  it  is  not  defeat,  but  victory. 
In  the  other  Gospels,  when  Christ  speaks  to  His  disciples  of  His  approaching 
decease, He  emphasizes  His  humiliation  and  suffering.  His  delivery  to  the  Gentiles 
(Matt.  i6:2i;  20:18:  Luke  18:32):  here  His  death  is  voluntary,  "No  man 
taketh  My  life  from  Me  but  I  lay  it  down  of  Myself"  (10:  18):  it  inheres  in  the  re- 
lation He  has  assumed,  "  I  am  the  good  shepherd,  the  good  shepherd  giveth  his 
life  for  the  sheep"  (  10:  11  )  ;  it  is  the  reason  for  His  Father's  special  love,  "There- 
fore doth  My  Father  love  Me  because  I  lay  down  My  life  that  I  may  take  it  again  " 
(  10:17,  18);  and  it  results  in  universal  appreciation,  "And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me"  (  12:32  ).  In  this  Gospel  there  is  no 
account  of  the  Transfiguration  with  its  Moses  and  Elias,  the  encouragement  for 
the  coming  Calvary.  There  are  here  no  apprehensions  of  the  cross,  no  Gethsem- 
ane ;  no  angels  strengthening  Him.  When  the  band  of  men  and  officers  ap- 
proach Him  in  the  garden  to  apprehend  Him,  when  He  says,  "I  am  He,"  they  go 
backward    and    fall    to  the    ground  (  18:6).     Throughout   the  whole    scene    of  the 


*This  and  the  following  articles  were  contributed  for  the  series  in  the    press.     One  or  two  of  these  were 
received  after  the  series  were  concluded. 

444 


THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO  ST.  JOHN.  445 

criicirixion  the  saim-  wonderful  diaracter  is  pri>ir\i'ii.  Ik-  does  not  receive  tcstl- 
inony  from  men ;  no  company  ot  women  bewail  and  lament  Him;  no  Judas  con- 
fesses, "I  have  betrayed  the  innocent  blood";  no  Pilate's  wife  savs,  "Have  thou 
nothing  to  do  with  this  just  man";  no  dying  malefactor  testifies,  "  This  man  has 
done  nothing  amiss";,  no  Roman  centurion  says,  "Truly  this  man  was  the  Son 
of  God".  And  He  who  needed  no  help  or  sympathy  or  testimony  from  men  or 
angels  would  have  none  from  nature;  in  this  Gospel  we  read  nothing  of  rocks 
rending,  or  of  the  earth  quaking,  or  of  the  darkness  covering  the  land.  From  the 
cross  is  heard  no  cry,  no  prayer,  "My  God,  My  (iod,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken 
Me.'" — "  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend  My  Spirit".  He  speaks  but  three 
words — the  first,  as  if  on  a  quiet  death-bed,  provides  for  llis  mother:  the  second  is. 
a  fulfilment  of  Scripture :  the  third  is  the  shout  of  the  conqueror. 

The  final  Gospel  is  the  personal  Gospel.  The  divine  persons.  Father,  Son  and 
Spirit,  are  presented  in  their  order,  each  in  His  distinct  sphere  and  each  in  His 
relation  to  the  others.  The  personality  of  Christ,  the  personal  character  of  the 
relations  He  sustains  are  everywhere  emphasized.  He  speaks  rather  than  acts 
(8:12).  His  fundamental  assertion  is,  "  I  am — I  am  the  Life,  the  Truth,  the  Wav,. 
the  Vine,  the  Door,  the  Shepherd,  the  Resurrection  ".  Few  miracles  are  recorded, 
and  the  discourses  are  occupied  with  the  nature  of  God,  the  essential  oneness  of 
Christ  with  the  Father,  the  mystical  union  of  Christ  with  His  people.  In  the  per- 
son of  Christ  all  things  find  their  fulfilment;  not  only  the  predictions  of  the  Old 
Testament  but  the  Old  Testament  itself ;  the  Shekinah  and  the  tabernacle  (1:14)? 
the  temple  (2:19-21);  the  ladder  on  which  the  angels  of  God  ascend  and  descend^ 
(1:51);  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness  (3:14);  the  manna  (6:32);  the  paschal  lamb 
(1:20;  19:36);  in  Him  all  nature  finds  its  fulfilment — life  (1:4);  light  (1:9);  water 
(4:10);  bread  (6:50);  all  offices  and  relationships — the  vine  (15:1);  the  door 
(10:7);  the  shepherd  (10:14)  ;  the  way  ( 14:6).  The  reason  and  vindication  of  all 
Christ's  actions  are  found  in  Himself.  The  eight  miracles  in  this  Gospel  are.  with 
a  single  exception  (4:46-53),  self-moved — wrought  without  any  request  from  those 
to  be  benefitted,  and  in  that  exception  the  cure  transcends  the  faith  of  the  peti- 
tioner. In  the  discussion  on  the  Sabbath  there  is  no  argument,  as  in  the  synop- 
tics, from  David  or  thetemple,  or  the  conduct  of  man  :  His  one  justification  is, 
"Mv  Father  worketh  until  now,  and  I  work"  (v.  17).  In  the  one  thought  of 
belief  in  Christ  center  all  the  requirements  of  God  (6:  28,  29).  A  personal  rela- 
tion to  a  personal  Being  comprises  all  that  is  necessary  for  perfect  conduct  and 
character;  »his  meets  every  possibility  of  the  soul  (1:4);  satisfies  every  desire 
(4:14);  fills  every  capacity  for  time  and  eternity  (6:35).  The  personality  of  the 
thought  moulds  the  style  of  John  ;  it  shows  itself  in  the  avoidance  of  abstractions, 
in  the  absence  of  all  reference  to  law  as  now  in  force,  in  the  continual  recurrence 
of  the  personal  pronoun,  in  the  precision  and  accuracy  with  which  words  are  used, 
in  the  continual  repetition  of  words  which  this  precision  requires,  in  the  ever- 
recurring  antithesis,  in  the  scrupulous  restriction  of  terms.  Believers.  «■.  i^..  are 
the  children  of  God  ;  only  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God. 

It  is  the  universal  Gospel,  "All  things  were  made  by  Him  and  without  Him 
was  not  anything  made  that  was  made"  (1:2);  He  "  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world"  (1:9);  He  is  "the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world"  (1:29).  "The  hour  is  coming  in  which  all  thai  are  in  the 
graves  shall  hear  His  voice  and  shall  come  forth  "  (v.  28). 

The  final  Gospel  is  the  Gospel  of  the  essential  and  eternal.  There  is  here  no 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  with  its  explanation  of  law;  no  Sermon  on  the  Plain,  with 
its  ethical  directions.     In   the  conversations  with    Nicodemus   (3  :  1-21 ).  ami  with 


446  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

the  woman  of  Samaria  (4:7-26),  in  the  discussions  and  controversies  witli  the 
Jews  (chs.  6- 10),  in  the  farewell  discourses  with  the  disciples  (chs.  13-16), 
there  is  no  mention  of  duties  which  are  bv  their  nature  restricted  to  this  life. 
Directions  with  regard  to  conduct  found  in  all  the  other  Gospels  disappear ;  the 
heavenly,  the  spiritual,  and  eternal  are  the  subject  of  discourse.  The  church  is 
viewed  in  the  same  light.  Christ  institutes  no  ordinances,  ordains  no  apostles, 
appoints  no  officers.  He  breathes  on  the  disciples  the  Holy  Spirit  which  is  to  be 
the  eternal  life  of  the  church  (20  :  22).  The  Gospel  begins  with  the  declaration  of 
the  intrinsic  nature  of  Christ,  with  His  relation  on  the  one  hand  to  the  uncreated 
and  on  the  other  to  all  that  comes  into  being.  The  antagonisms  are  the  ultimate 
and  permanent — light  and  darkness,  life  and  death.  The  relationships  are  not  his- 
toric, but  ideal  (8  :  39).  Times  and  places  disappear  ;  God  is  Spirit,  and  is  wor- 
shipped in  spirit  and  in  truth  (4  :  21-24)  5  while  Christ  returns  to  the  glory  ^^hich 
He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was  (17  :  5). 


THE  MOST  REMARKABLE  GOSPEL. 

by  rea-.  r)orkm:us  a.  hayks,  t>h.  d.,  w.  t.  i).,  i -i..  i)., 

Professor  ok  New  Testament  Exegesis,  Garrett   Uihlical  Institute, 
EvANSTON,  Illinois. 

The  Fourth  Gospel  gives  us  no  adequate  hiograpliv  of  Jesus.  It  is  too  small  a 
book.  My  Boswell's  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson  has  1S24  pages.  The  Life  of  Phillips 
Brooks  on  mv  library  shelves  has  1596  pages,  and  the  Life  of  Henry  Drummond 
534  pages.  The  Life  of  our  Lord  by  the  Apostle  John  occupies  less  than  30  pages 
in  my  Revised  Version  ;  and  yet  John  says  that  if  all  had  been  written  which  might 
have  been  written,  the  world  itself  could  not  contain  all  the  books  covering  the 
theme.  Evidently  much  has  been  left  out.  Some  of  the  omissions  are  most 
remarkable. 

John  omits  the  whole  record  of  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  to 
begin  with.  He  gives  us  no  genealogy,  no  account  of  the  annunciation,  and  he 
never  suggests  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  an  immaculate  conception.  He  tells 
us  nothing  about  the  infancy  and  youth  of  our  Lord,  nothing  about  His  develop- 
ment of  mind  and  soul,  His  early  environment  and  teaching.  These  were  the 
most  important  years  of  His  life  to  Jesus  Himself,  but  John  says  nothing  about 
them  ! 

Jesus  meets  John  the  Baptist  at  the  Jordan,  but  the  evangelist  has  told  us  noth- 
ing about  the  earlv  life  or  ministry  of  the  forerunner,  as  he  tells  us  nothing  about 
his  later  imprisonment  and  death  ! 

There  are  some  verv  capital  events  in  the  life  of  our  Lord,  which  we  would 
think  any  biographer  would  not  fail  to  mention,  as.  for  example,  the  temptation  in 
the  wilderness,  the  transfiguration,  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  Geth- 
semane  agony,  and  the  ascension.     John  tells  us  about  none  of  them  ! 

There  are  no  children  in  this  Gospel,  and  there  are  no  scribes,  and  no  lepers, 
and  no  publicans  ! 

There  is  no  casting  out  of  demons  in  this  Gospel.  His  enemies  say  of  Jesus, 
"He  has  a  demon".  But  this  unreal,  falsely-charged,  demoniacal  possession  is 
the  only  one  recognized  or  mentioned  in  this  book. 

There  are  no  eschatologies  in  this  Gospel,  such  as  we  find  in  the  Synoptics. 
Here,  instead  of  their  predictions  of  the  Parousia,  we  have  the  promises  of  the 
Paraclete.  The  coming  of  the  Comforter  is  substituted  for  the  coming  of  the 
Judge  and  King. 

There  are  no  proverbs  in  this  Gospel,  and  there  are  no  parables  I  Jesus  acts 
parables  here,  but  He  does  not  narrate  them. 

The  Greek  words  for  repentance  and  faith  are  not  found  in  this  book.  These 
words  represent  chief  themes  in  the  other  Gospels.     John  never  uses  the  terms  ! 

How  could  anybody  write  a  Life  of  Jesus  that  would  be  of  any  account  and 
omit  all  mention  of  the  temptation,  transfiguration  and  ascension,  of  the  demons, 
and  the  lepers  and  the  publicans,  and  the  parables?  Here  is  a  most  remarkable 
Gospel  without  any  of  these  things. 

Yet   Origen  said.  "This  Gospel   is  the  consummation  of  the  (iospels,  as   the 

447 


448  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Gospels  are  of  all  the  Scriptures  ".  And  Luther  said,  "  This  is  the  unique,  tender, 
genuine,  chief  Gospel,  far  preferable  to  the  other  three.  »  *  »  Should  a  tyrant 
succeed  in  destroying  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  only  a  single  copy  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  and  the  Gospel  according  to  John  escape  him,  Christianity  would 
be  saved".  Biedermann  calls  it  "the  most  wonderful  of  all  religious  books". 
Another  writer  says,  "  It  stands  out  from  the  other  Gospels  as  the  Sabbath  from 
the  other  days  of  the  week,  as  the  office  of  the  priesthood  from  the  functions  of  the 
Levites,  or  like  the  gleaning  of  the  grapes  of  Ephraim,  which  was  better  than  the 
vintage  of  Abiezer  ". 

What  gives  the  book  its  unique  value.''  What  makes  it  the  most  remarkable 
and  the  most  valued  of  all  the  Gospels } 

I.  Its  Artistic  Form.  It  has  been  called  "the  supreme  literarj  work  of 
the  world".  It  observes  all  the  finer  laws  governing  the  artistic  composition  of 
the  ancient  classical  tragedies.  As  in  these,  the  catastrophe  is  announced  in  the  be- 
ginning, and  the  whole  action  of  the  narrative  tends  irresistibly  toward  the  tragic 
close.  As  in  the  Iliad  and  the  Niebelungenlied,  and  as  in  the  tragedies  of  ^schylus 
and  Sophocles,  the  terrible  outcome  is  kept  always  in  sight.  The  shadow  of  the 
cross  falls  athwart  the  first  page.  The  certainty  of  the  hero's  horrible  death  con- 
fronts us  at  every  turn.  The  first  time  the  Man  Jesus  appears  He  is  heralded  as  a 
Lamb  appointed  for  sacrifice.  At  the  marriage  feast  His  "  hour'"  is  not  yet  come, 
but  its  dread  significance  is  present  in  His  mind.  When  He  feeds  the  multitude, 
that  joyous  occasion  is  marred  in  their  memory  by  His  discourse  on  eating  His 
flesh  and  drinking  His  blood.  Most  of  the  action  is  confined  to  the  doomed  city  of 
Jerusalem.  Galilee  might  lie  bathed  in  the  sunshine,  filled  with  the  glory  of  lilies 
and  the  singing  of  birds  ;  but  over  Jerusalem  the  clouds  were  gathering,  big  with 
thunder,  and  the  lightning  flashes  darted  through  them  like  travail-pains.  John 
did  not  consciously  compose  a  tragedy.  He  was  telling  a  true  story.  He  was 
recording  a  genuine  biography.  But  in  the  telling  he  is  artistic  in  fuller  measure 
than  the  Synoptics  ever  were.  In  the  recording  he  follows  the  laws  of  the  highest 
literature.  He  gives  life,  color,  movement  to  his  narrative.  His  book  has  the 
freshness  and  the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  masterpieces  of  the  world's  writing. 

II.  CoNCEXTRATiox  OF  AcTiON.  Notc  how  the  action  is  concentrated  in  the 
progress  of  the  story.  There  are  two  great  divisions  of  the  book.  In  the  first 
division,  chaps.  1-12,  both  time  and  place  are  manifold.  The  public  ministry  of 
Jesus  touches  the  three  provinces  of  the  land  and  the  three  years  of  His  activity. 
In  the  second  division,  chaps.  13-20,  the  action  is  centered  in  the  one  city  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  a  large  part  of  it  is  confined  to  one  room  ;  and  the  time  is  limited  to 
one  evening  and  a  few  days.  More  and  more  the  scene  narrows  from  the  whole 
land  to  Judea,  and  from  Judea  to  Jerusalem,  and  in  Jerusalem  to  the  one  upper 
room  of  the  farewell  discourses ;  and  the  interest  intensifies  as  the  narrative 
lengthens  and  the  crisis  is  nearer  and  nearer  at  hand. 

III.  Symmetry.  The  symmetry  of  the  composition  is  noticeable  in  the  recur- 
rence of  certain  characters  and  the  nice  balancing  of  the  parts.  Nathanael's  name 
appears  in  the  preface  and  the  appendix,  in  the  introductory  and  in  the  concluding 
chapter,  and  nowhere  else.  The  mother  of  Jesus  is  seen  only  in  the  beginning  and 
at  the  end  of  the  Gospel.  At  the  opening  of  His  public  ministry  Jesus  attends  a 
feast  with  His  disciples  and  gives  a  demonstration  of  His  power.  At  the  end  of 
His  ministry  He  is  again  at  a  supper  with  His  disciples,  and  He  gives  to  them  a 
demonstration  of  His  love. 

IV.  Contrasts.  This  balancing  of  parts  over  against  each  other  is  accom- 
panied by  continuous  contrasts  throughout  the  narrative.     The  great  contrast  be- 


THE  MOST  REMARKABLE  GOSPEL.  449 

twecn  Faith  and  Unbelief  runs  through  thi-  whoK-  liook,  and  thi-  luw  iharactcrs, 
as  thev  are  introduced,  ranjjc  themselves  alternatelv  between  believers  and  un- 
believers, friends  and  foes.  First,  the  spvinjj,  critical  representatives  of  the  Phar- 
isees, then  the  faithful  and  obedient  disciples  of  John.  The  blinded  leaders  of  the 
people  stand  over  against  the  seeing  blind  man  with  his  bold  witness  to  the 
Messiahship  of  Jesus.  The  confession  of  Peter  contrasted  with  the  betrayal  of 
Judas.  The  raising  of  Lazarus  to  life  results  in  the  dooming  of  Jesus  to  death. 
These  contrasts  occur  in  every  chapter  and  help  to  give  to  the  narrative  its  striking 
variety. 

\'.  Its  Strikin(;  V'ariktv.  1.  Notice  the.  variety  of  the  seasons  presented  in 
this  Gospel.  In  the  beginning  of  the  activity  of  Jesus  it  is  the  Spring,  the  time  of 
the  sowing  of  seed  and  the  germination  and  growth  of  the  grain.  Later  in  the 
narrative  we  come  upon  the  Autumn  and  the  feast  of  the  ingathering  of  the  fruits 
in  the  Fall.  Then  at  the  very  height  of  the  conflict  between  Jesus  and  the  Jews  we 
are  expressly  told  that  it  was  Winter.  Finally,  with  the  resurrection  and  the  glori- 
fication of  Jesus,  it  is  the  Spring  again.  2.  A  great  variety  is  added  to  the  com- 
position by  the  alternation  of  incident  and  interlude,  of  story  and  sermon,  of 
action  and  discourse.  In  the  beginning  we  have  two  pictures  introducing  the  light 
side  and  the  dark  side  of  the  public  ministry,  the  marriage  feast  at  Cana,  and  the 
scourging  of  the  sellers  in  the  temple.  These  two  vivid  presentations  are  followed 
by  two  conversations,  one  in  the  darkness  of  the  night  and  the  other  in  the  glare 
of  the  full  noonday,  with  Nicodemus  and  with  the  woman  at  the  well.  Through  the 
Gospel  there  is  this  alternation  of  word  and  deed.  At  the  end,  there  are  the  solemn 
discourses  with  the  disciples,  followed  by  the  still  more  solemn  incidents  of  the 
trial  and  crucifixion.  There  is  a  constant  changing  from  action  to  speech  and 
from  the  brighter  to  the  darker  as)Tects  of  the  history.  There  is  a  continuous 
varietv  that  never  allows  the  interest  to  flag.  It  is  an  artistic  composition  as  well 
as  a  narrative  true  to  the  life. 

\T.  Ideal  Grouping.  John  had  an  incalculable  wealth  of  material,  from 
which  he  has  made  a  selection  of  scenes  and  sermons  that  will  fit  in  with  His  purpose 
and  be  most  suitable  to  his  plan.  It  is  in  this  selection  and  arrangement  of  material 
that  the  literary  artist,  as  well  as  the  saint  and  the  seer,  appears.  He  has  brought 
this  wonderful  fulness  of  words  and  works  into  an  amazingly  brief  compass.  He 
has  omitted  all  that  seemed  to  him  accidental  or  unessential.  He  has  united  the 
ideal  moments  of  the  life  of  Jesus  into  one  harmonious  presentation  of  the  Ideal 
Life.     He  has  made  a  work  of  art  as  well  as  a  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 

Vll.  Spiritlal  iNSKiHT.  John  was  a  literary  artist  and  he  was  a  saint. 
This  is  the  Gospel  of  Spiritual  Insight.  It  has  more  of  the  words  of  Christ,  and 
it  has  more  of  the  mind  of  Christ,  than  any  other.  It  has  the  most  profound  depths 
of  thought  in  most  siinple  and  clear  expression.  It  has  reached  the  hearts  of  men 
in  all  the  Christian  centuries,  and  it  will  be  regarded  by  them  as  the  most  remarkable 
and  the  most  valuable  of  the  Gospels  to  the  very  end  of  time. 


"IN  THE  BEGINNING". 
by   rev.   ja-iviks   lee  ^mitchell,   ph.   d., 

Pastor  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  Attleboro,  Mass. 

Along  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United  States,  bordering  upon  lower 
Canada,  runs  a  low  line  of  hills  called  the  Laurentian  mountains  —  the  first  land 
that  ever  lifted  itself  above  the  great  deep,  the  beach  of  an  otherwise  boundless 
ocean.  Whether  the  Garden  of  Eden  was  there  I  do  not  know,  but  it  is  certain 
these  hills  were  the  beginning  of  land,  the  beginning  of  life  upon  the  earth.  Is  it 
this  beginning  then  to  which  John  refers  when  he  says,  "  In  the  beginning  was 
the  Word  "  ? 

There  is  an  earlier  beginning  than  this  that  we  know  about.  Geology 
reports  long  eras  before  even  those  Laurentian  hills  made  their  appearance, 
nebulous  ages,  ages  of  cooling  and  condensation ;  and  a  voice  speaking  long 
before  John's  said,  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth", — 
a  beginning  that  before  ever  there  was  even  an  ocean  for  the  Laurentian  hills  to 
rise  above,  a  beginning  in  utter  formlessness.  Is  it  that  beginning  to  which  John 
refers  when  he  says,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word"? 

To  John's  vision  the  creation  was  a  modern  incident,  a  current  event,  an 
associated  press  dispatch  of  a  happening  in  time.  John's  beginning  was  a  begin- 
ning before  the  creation,  a  beginning  before  there  was  a  beginning,  a  beginning 
before  there  was  a  time  in  which  to  begin.  The  "In  the  beginning"  of  Genesis 
is  the  mere  "once  upon  a  time"  of  the  story  teller.  The  "In  the  beginning"  of 
John  is  that  point  of  light  in  the  fathomless  depth  of  eternity  which  always  has 
been.  If  you  would  put  this  date  down  in  your  history  book,  you  must  start  that 
book  with  eternity. 

Is  it  history .''  That  is  the  question  that  rises  right  here.  Is  it  history  or  the 
flight  of  poetic  imagination.''  What  right  has  any  man,  the  infinitesimal  fragment 
of  a  race  whose  generic  life  is  a  mere  wink  in  these  infinite  distances,  to  date  his 
narrative  "  in  the  beginning".''  What  can  he  know  of  the  beginning.'  A  few  lines 
later  "there  was  a  man  sent  from  God  whose  name  was  John",  —  there  starts  the 
indubitable  record  of  an  eye-witness;  but  this  "  in  the  beginning"  —  he  was  not 
an  eye-witness  of  that.  There  is  not  even  a  pretence  that  he  is  following  records 
or  traditions  either  ;  and  certainly  he  is  not  speculating,  for  there  is  not  a  prefa- 
tory word  such  as  the  most  confident  philosopher  would  feel  bound  to  use.  He 
writes  as  one  who  knew,  and  knew  what  could  not  be  disputed.  "In  the  begin- 
ning was  the  Word".  Surely  this  man  is  writing  history,  not  poetry  nor  phi- 
losophy. 

But  how  did  he  know  it.''  Why  doesn't  he  tell  us  how  he  knew  it.''  For  he 
must  know  also  that  this  is  a  tremendous  statement  for  anybody  to  make  or  to 
receive.  The  answer  is  that  all  Ephesvis  knew  how  he  knew  it,  and  all  those  that 
ever  would  read  his  Gospel  would  know  how  he  knew  it.  Was  he  not  John.' 
No  !  not  John.  John  was  the  man  of  long  ago  buried  in  the  dark  before  the  dawn. 
Was  he  not  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  the  intimate  friend  of  that  Word  who 
was  there  in  the  beginning,  saturated  still  with  His  spirit.'     Did  not  all  the  world 

450 


''IN  THE  BEGINNING''.  451 

know  of  his  experience  on  Patnios?  Indeed  the  line  wliicli  introilueo  the  Apoca- 
lypse, "  I  was  in  the  spirit",  is  the  introduction  to  all  John's  writing.  It  is  all 
revelation  from  God.  In  short  the  historical  iiites^rity  of  this  first  verse  of  John's, 
which  antedates  every  other  verse  in  the  Bible,  and  everv  other  fact  of  science, 
rests  on  the  historical  integrity  of  Jesus.  Jesus  being  what  He  claimed  to  be,  and 
what  Mis  words  and  works  prove  Ilim  to  be.  His  intimate  friend  was  of  course 
perfectly  competent  to  write  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter  of  John  without 
other  introduction.  Yes,  we  have  here  an  historical  date  antedating  all  other 
dates  —  "  In  the  beginning". 

Well,  what  in  the  beginning?  "In  tiie  beginning  was  tiie  Word".  Mat- 
thew takes  pains  to  trace  Christ's  genealogy  for  us  to  Abraham.  Mark,  the  first 
written  and  most  consecutively  historic  of  the  Gospels,  shows  His  life  as  the 
fulfilment  of  prophecy.  Luke  traces  Christ's  genealogy  to  Adam,  for  Luke's 
conception  of  Christ  is  as  humanity's  Saviour.  lie  is  the  one  promised  to  the 
mother  of  all.  But  John  deals  not  with  Adam,  refers  not  to  Abraham,  takes  no 
pains  to  strengthen  his  position  with  prophecies  in  time,  passes  by  the  creation  as 
though  it  were  an  event  of  yesterday,  penetrates  the  eternal  past  and  shows  us 
Jesus  as  one  with  the  infinite  Father.  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  w-as  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God  ". 

Extremely  interesting  arguments  and  so  simple  that  a  child  can  understand 
them  have  been  formed  to  show  that  Jesus  was  not  the  product  of  His  times. 
None  but  a  legal  expert  with  a  case  to  make  out  of  nothing  ever  supposed  that  He 
was.  He  is  the  antithesis  of  His  times.  At  every  step  He  does  violence  to 
Judaism,  the  land  and  ideas  in  the  midst  of  which  He  was  born.  He  is  absolutely 
unaccountable,  the  despair  of  evolution,  an  evolution  which  starts  with  the  world. 
He  is  the  product  of  His  times  or  all  times  about  as  much  as  the  spring  is  the 
prodvict  of  winter's  ice  and  snow. 

These  have  their  purpose  and  the  spring  follows  them,  but  the  spring  is  not 
of  them.  Spring  is  from  her  own  source  of  light  and  heat.  John,  not  less  his- 
toric than  the  historians  but  more  so,  not  less  scientific  than  the  scientists  but 
more  so,  reaches  back,  out  and  up  to  that  real  source  whence  Jesus  was,  and  of 
whose  passion  He  can  be  indeed  the  natural,  the  scientific,  the  historic  product. 
"In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  God".  The  world's  spring- 
time is  not  of  the  world's  winter,  but  of  that  warm  core  of  Eternity — God. 

There  is  a  nautical  term  which  beautifully  describes  the  position  of  this  verse 
of  the  great  evangel  in  its  relation  to  our  poor  plodding  confusions,  our  utter 
failures  to  get  a  real  start —  "cleared".  When  a  vessel  has  got  all  through  with 
unloading  and  loading  cargoes,  with  troublesome  landsmen  and  agents,  with 
docks  and  tugs  and  officialdom's  red  tapes,  cast  oft  her  last  cable  and  turned  her 
prow  to  the  great  free  seas,  she  is  spoken  of  as  "cleared".  John  wrote  that 
Gospel  in  the  midst  of  as  wild  a  shrieking  of  human  voices,  as  mad  a  confusion  of 
human  thoughts  as  ever  was.  If  ever  worldly  businesses  and  rocky  despairs  and 
narrow  channels  and  official  humanities  surrounded  anything,  they  surrounded 
that  Gospel,  but  at  the  very  first  verse  it  cleared  for  the  eternities.  "  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word  and  the  Word  was  God".  It  cleared  "in  spite  of  rock 
and  tempest's  roar,  in  spite  of  false  lights  on  the  shore".  The  centuries  have  not 
called  it  back,  nor  the  seas  washed  it  down.  There  is  not,  nor  ever  will  be,  any- 
thing better  for  us  than  to  follow  in  its  white  wake  out  to  sea. 

•  ♦•  «»»••♦• 

Is  it  not  great  for  vou  and  me  who   are  not  great  scientists  nor   mighty  think- 


452  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

ers  and  yet  must  start  somewhere,  must  have  a  foundation  for  thought  and  hope 
somewhere,  if  there  is  to  be  any  manhood  in  us,  to  have  this  unshakable  verse,  a 
secret  knowledge  from  the  heart  of  God  to  our  hearts  ?  "  In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word  and  the  Word  was  God."  I  once  lived  in  a  room  where  the  sun  rose  before 
it  was  morning.  Before  my  window  a  glorious  old  steeple  shot  its  fearless  spire 
hundreds  of  feet  up  into  the  sky  and  caught  the  sun's  beams  before  it  was  over 
the  city's  horizon  and  flung  them  down  into  my  room.  Many  a  humble  heart  this 
day  walks  in  faith  because  of  this  majestic  high  Gospel.  It  flings  down  into  the 
depths  of  the  soul  some  of  the  light  of  the  yet  unrisen  sun  of  perfect  vision. 


A  LESSON  IN  METHODS. 
•n>     i<K\.    HDW'iN^    M.  i*o-ri<;.\'r.  d.  d.. 

Pastor   ok  thk    Broad   -Sirkki    Mk.mokiai.    Haimisi    (murcu,  I'iiii.auki.I'UIa,  1'a. 

The  Gospel  of  John  mav  ho  conceived  as  a  manual  of  method  in  Christian 
work.  Just  after  the  temptation  in  the  wilderness  (  Matt.  4:  i-i  i  )  our  Lord  ap- 
pears a  second  time  in  the  Jordan  vailev  to  hegin  His  work.  In  the  wilderness  Ik- 
had  seen  great  visions,  and  the  horizon  around  llim  widened  until  it  emhraced  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world;  and  lie  knew  them  to  he  His. 

How  now  will  He  begin  to  enact  His  claim?  How  will  He  announce  His 
Messiahship  .'  When  men  see  Him  again  will  thev  see  Him  assuming  the  title  and 
the  prerogatives  of  the  Prince  of  Israel  ?  No:  it  is  a  day  of  small  things  which 
succeeds  the  day  of  great  visions.  In  the  Jordan  valley  He  is  seen  walking  alone, 
then  talking  with  two  men.  then  with  three  others.  And  thus  is  ushered  in  the 
work  of  the  world's  Teacher  and  Saviour. 

This  way  of  going  to  work  on  a  world  enterprise  was  either  consinnmatc  folly 
or  supreme  wisdom.  That  it  was  a  deliberately  chosen  method  appears  from  the 
rest  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  which  is  largely  taken  up  with  private  interviews  and 
the  direct  results  of  these.  Chapter  3  is  occupied  with  Nicodemus  ;  chapter  4  is 
occupied  with  the  woman  of  Samaria ;  chapter  5  is  occupied  with  the  man  at  the 
pool  of  Bethesda.  and  a  king's  officer;  chapter  9  is  occupied  with  a  man  born 
blind:  chapter  ii  is  occupied  with  Lazarus;  chapter  12  is  occupied  with  certain 
Greeks;  chapters  13.  14,  15,  16,  and  17  are  occupied  with  the  Twelve;  and  chapter 
21  is  occupied  with  Peter  and  John.  Thus  we  see  how  large  a  share  of  His  atten- 
tion our  Lord  bestowed  upon  individuals.  A  group  of  fishermen.  :i  leading  citi- 
zen, a  woman  of  the  street,  a  king's  officer,  a  hospital  cripple,  a  blind  man,  a  sick 
friend — these,  in  their  turn,  are  given  all  the  heart  and  help  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
And  in  chapter  7,  His  brothers,  impatient  of  His  method,  are  insisting  that  He 
must  get  out  among  the  peo]ile  more,  and  make  a  more  public  display  of  His 
powers. 

In  the  method  He  adopted  to  accomplish  Ilis  work,  we  have  two  things: — 

(I.  (Jur  Lord's  estimate  of  the  individual.  Jesus  Christ  discovered  the  single 
>oul.  and  stamped  its  value.  He  said  it  was  worth  more  than  all  the  world  of 
things.  Before  He  taught,  the  individual  was  hardly  more  than  a  grain  of  sand  in 
a  sand  hill.  After  He  had  spoken  men  saw  the  awful  halo  of  personal  account- 
abilitv  encircling  the  head  of  every  member  of  the  race. 

/'.  The  true  method  of  propagandism.  The  only  way  for  anything  to  spread 
through  the  living  organism  of  humanity — whether  an  idea,  a  plague,  a  salva- 
tion— is  by  personal  contact.  And  the  results  of  our  Lord's  method  are  an 
abundant  vindication  of  His  wisdom  in  choosing  it.  Trace  these  results,  for 
example,  in  the  case  of  John,  who  had  his  first  interview  with  his  Lord  there  in 
the  Jordan  vailev,  and  who  lived  to  give  the  world  the  Gospel  we  are  studying. 
Or  take  Peter  as  vour  example,  and  recall    Pentecost  and    the   >uhsoquent    history. 


'Now  President  ni  Kiiriiian  Iniveriily,  (Ireenville,  S.  C 

453 


454  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Thus  while  individuals  occupy  the   foreground   and   seem  to  absorb    the  Saviour's^ 
attention,  crowding  up  behind  them,  coming  to  its  light,  we  see  the  world. 

A  LESSON. 

If  this  was  the  method  of  our  Lord,  it  is  the  true  method  for  us,  I  lis  disciples, 
"  Individual  work  for  individuals",  as  Dr.  H.  Clay  Trumbull  put  it  in  the  title  of 
his  charming  little  book.  Our  low  estimate  of  the  individual  lurks  in  every  such 
excuse  as  "  There's  nothing  I  can  do  !  "  But  you  can  win  a  child  to  Christ.  That 
seems  to  us  a  small  thing — yet  a  little  weaver  lad,  the  only  one  received  into  the 
church  at  Blantyre  in  a  3'ear,  grew  to  be  David  Livingstone. 


THE  CONDITION  OF  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD. 
AN  EXPOSITION  OF  ST.  JOHN  3.  I-J6. 

liV    KkV.    WII^I.I/YAI    c.    avhitk<^hii,    a.    m.. 

Professor   of   Bihlical   I.ani.uaoes  and   Literature    in    Alired  TiiEOLor.iCAi. 
Seminary.  Alfrkd,  N.  ^". 

The  precise  nature  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  baffles  definition.  Our  Saviour 
began  His  preaching  with  the  theme,  "  Repent,  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand"  ; 
and  He  had  this  kingdom  as  the  principal  subject  of  His  teaching  all  through  His 
earthly  ministry.  Although  students  of  the  New  Testament  can  not  agree  as  to  the 
content  of  this  expression,  "Kingdom  of  God",  it  can  not  be  said  that  we  know 
nothing  of  it.  The  teachings  of  our  Saviour  and  the  enlightenment  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  have  not  been  in  vain.  This  kingdom  is  so  great  and  grand  that  our  earthly 
words  fail  to  encompass  it.  It  is  a  heavenly  kingdom  and  has  its  origin  in  God. 
We  know  something  about  it  just  as  we  know  something  about  (iod  Himself;  and 
we  may  know  more  and  more  if  wc  fully  follow  the  light  that  is  before  us,  and  are 
true  to  the  God  that  loves  us. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Jolin,  our  Saviour  is  speaking 
of  entrance  into  this  kingdom.  Two  fundamental  errors  in  regard  to  citizenship 
in  the  kingdom  were  cherished  by  the  men  of  that  day  as  well  as  of  this.  ( i)  It 
is  hard  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  kingdom,  and  (2)  it  is  easy  to  become  a  citizen  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Contradictory  as  these  statements  may  seem,  they  are  both 
alike  errors,  as  may  he  inferred  from  the  words  of  our  I^ord. 

The  moral  man  thinks  that  entering  into  the  kingdom  is  so  easy  that  he  almost 
fails  to  consider  the  question  of  entrance  for  himself. 

Nicodemus,  a  doctor  of  the  law,  was  greatly  interested  in  the  teaching  of  the 
new  prophet  from  Galilee.  He  was  doubtless  a  very  devout  man,  and  was  natu- 
rally moved  by  the  evident  sincerity  of  Jesus  and  His  earnestness  of  purpose.  He 
came  therefore  by  night  to  express  approval  of  this  young  Teacher  and  His  work, 
and  to  inquire  further  of  His  teaching.  He  took  it  for  granted  that  he,  himself,  as 
well  as  all  other  good  Israelites  were  already  within  the  Kingdom  of  (iod.  Were 
thev  not  the  children  of  Abraham  f     Were  they  not  the  chosen  people  of  God  r 

i.tNicodemus  'was  startled  when  Jesus  said  to  him,  "  Except  one  be  born  from 
above  he  can  not  see  the  Kingdom  of  God".  Students  have  been  long  discussing 
the  meaning  of  the  word  which  King  James'  translators  rendered,  "again",  and 
our  American  Revisers,  "anew".  The  former  translation  certainly  failed  of 
expressing  the  meaning  of  the  |word :  we  nmst  choose  between  the  renderings, 
•-anew"  or  "from  above".  The  characteristic  feature  of  the  birth  referred  to  is 
not  that  it  is  another,  but  that  it  is  of  a  different  origin. 

In  his  amazement  that  anything  should  be  required  of  him,  Nicodenui>  grasps 
at  the  idea  of  birth  and  ignores  or  misapprehends  the  adverb.  Even  according  to 
the  tenor  of  the  foolish  question  which  Nicodemus  asks,  the  requirement  is  stupen- 
dous,—to  think  that  a  man  must  be  born  again  in  order  to  enter  the  Kingdom  ot 
God.'     But    this   new   birth    i>  of  a  higher  character  than  the  earthly  and  physical. 

455 


4S6  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

"  As  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  the  right  to  become  children  of  God, — 
even  to  those  who  believed  upon  His  name,  who  were  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the 
will  of  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God".  There  could  be  no  merit  or 
utility  in  rebirth  in  a  physical  sense,  even  if  such  a  thing  were  possible.  The  new 
birth  of  which  Jesus  speaks  is  of  the  Spirit. 

A  new  principle  and  motive  of  life  must  enter  into  the  nature  of  man  :  in  fact 
his  nature  must  be  changed.  We  are  very  apt  to  think  of  this  statement  as  applying 
to  a  heathen  Chinaman  or  to  a  cannibal  of  the  Southern  seas,  or  perhaps  to  the 
criminal  and  drunkard  of  our  own  land.  But  Jesus  was  speaking  to  one  of  the  most 
cultured  and  religious  men  of  his  time,  a  Pharisee,  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrin. 
This  condition,  we  may  be  sure,  rests  upon  every  one.  No  matter  how  refined  a 
man  is,  no  matter  how  moral,  no  matter  how  devoted  to  the  law,  he  must  be  born 
from  above  in  order  to  inherit  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  attain  new  life,  the  real  life. 

This  new  life  is  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  is  therefore  independent  of  every  earthlv 
element;  it  is  within  the  soul,  a  life  from  God.  We  are  not,  however,  to  ignore 
the  fact  that  our  Saviour  uses  another  word  along  with  Spirit  in  v.  5.  "  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  one  be  born  of  water  and  the  Spirit,  he  can  not  enter 
the  Kingdom  of  God  ".  Although  the  new  birth  is  entirely  spiritual  it  is  associated 
with  an  external  element.  Jesus  does  not  intend  to  speak  of  two  distinct  means  in 
bringing  about  this  birth.  It  is  a  mistake  to  translate  as  King  James'  version,  "  Of 
water  and  of  the  Spirit".  The  water  is  the  subordinate,  external,  and,  perhaps, 
merely  figurative  element.  We  may  speak  of  the  birth  of  the  Spirit ;  but  we  can 
not  properly  speak  of  the  birth  of  water.  Christian  baptism  is  to  be  exalted  because 
of  its  symbolical  reference ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  unduly  made  prominent,  because  its 
efiicacy, — its  very  reality  indeed,  depends  upon  the  presence  of  the  personal  Holy 
Spirit.  The  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  or  the  teaching  that  baptism  is  a 
saving  ordinance  is  not  of  God  but  of  man.  Simon  Magus  was  baptized  ;  but  Peter 
said  to  him,  "  Thou  hast  no  part  nor  lot  in  this  matter". 

Our  .Saviour  enforces  the  truth  that  this  new  birth, — the  entrance  into  the 
kingdom, — is  not  of  man  but  of  God  by  referring  to  the  phenomenon  of  the  wind. 
■'  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  will,  and  thou  hearest  the  voice  thereof,  but  knowest 
not  whence  it  cometh,  and  whither  it  goeth  ;  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the 
Spirit  ".  We  can  not  see  nor  understand  the  wind ;  but  we  can  observ  e  that  which 
is  occasioned  by  it,  and  so  believe  its  existence,  even  if  we  can  not  explain  it. 

Shall  we  conclude  then,  that  entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  altogether 
beyond  our  control  and  so  no  occasion  of  thought  for  us.'  Shall  we  despair  at  once 
because  the  new  birth  is  from  above  and  not  of  ovnselves.'  Our  Saviovir  evidently 
intended  to  teach  Nicodemus  that  entrance  into  the  kingdom  was  not  as  easy  as  he 
supposed,  but  He  had  no  desire  to  lead  him  into  the  opposite  error.  He  gave  a 
shock  to  his  present  feeling  of  security  in  order  that  he  might  come  to  a  realization 
of  his  own  lack. 

The  great  mistake  of  many  a  poor  sinner  in  regard  to  entrance  into  the  kingdom 
is  that  the  way  is  by  far  too  difficult  for  him,  and  that  he  inight  as  well  despair  at 
once.  But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the  commencement  of  the  new  life  that  appeals 
directly  to  the  activity  of  those  who  would  enter.  Continuing  His  teaching  to 
Nicodemus,  our  Lord  says,  "  And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness, 
even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up;  that  whosoever  believeth  may  in  Him 
have  eternal  life  ".  Belief  in  a  crucified  Saviour  is  the  way  into  the  Kingdom  ot 
God.  The  promise  is  broad  and  the  condition  is  in  the  heart  of  the  one  who  would 
enter  :       WAosoever  believeth. 

The   Evangelist  John  adds  a  word  of  explanation,  which  is  indeed  an  epitome 


CONDITION  OF  ENTRANCE  INTO  THE  KINGDOM.    457 

of  the  whole  niessajje  of  Good  News.— the  IJttle  (iospel,  as  Martin  Luther  calls  it. 
"For  God  so  loved  Uhe  World,  that  he  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life". 

From  the  human  point  of  view  the  one  requisite  for  entrance  into  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  faith, — that  is,  belief  in  the  promises  of  God  and  acceptance  of  them. 
Faith  is  not  mere  credence.  An  intellectual  belief  in  the  statements  of  the  IIolv 
Scriptures  with  no  acceptance  of  them  is  no  faith  at  all.  Faith  in  Jesus  means 
nothing  less  than  an  active  trust  in  Him.  a  personal  allesjiaiue  to  Ilimas  Lord  and 
Master. 

Some  have  wondered  that  we  have  in  John  3  :  16  no  mention  of  repentance,  and 
indeed  that  Jesus  spoke  to  Nicodemus  nothing  about  repentance.  This  omis.sion 
is  not  because  repentance  is  not  needed  :  it  is  alluded  to  in  the  reference  to  the 
water  of  baptism,  and  is  involved  in  faith.  The  teaching  of  John  the  Baptist  was 
for  Pharisees  as  well  as  for  others.  The  cultured  doctor  of  the  law  that  came  to 
Jesus  by  night  must  enter  the  kingdom  by  the  same  door  as  anv  other  man.  It  is 
impossible  that  one  should  really  accept  Jesus  as  Master, — that  is,  have  faith  in  Him, 
and  still  cling  to  sin.  He  Himself  says,  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon". 
As  long  as  we  try  to  serve  both,  we  are  serving  only  the  latter ;  and  as  soon  as  we 
have  the  genuine  purpose  to  serve  God  alone,  we  have  not  only  ceased  to  serve  the 
god  of  this  world  but  have  turned  our  backs  upon  him. 

With  this  understanding  of  the  conditions  of  entrance  into  the  kingdom,  we 
need  not  fear  to  say  that  our  citizenship  is  of  our  own  choice.  We  have  felt  our 
lost  condition  and  have  accepted  the  promise.  We  have  repented  of  our  sins  and 
have  entered  into  eternal  life.  On  the  other  hand  we  nnist  say  also,  we  know  of 
a  surety  that  salvation  is  not  of  ourselves.  "  For  by  grace  have  ye  been  saved 
through  faith  ;  and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is  the  gift  of  God  "  (Eph.2:8).  We  have 
been  born  from  above,  we  have  passed  from  death  into  life,  surely  not  by  any  power 
of  our  ow^n,  but  through  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  looked  upon  our  low  estate  and  has 
lifted  us  up.  Our  Redeemer,  the  Son  of  God  has  left  His  exalted  place  and  emptied 
Himself.  He  took  upon  Himselt  frail  flesh,  lived  among  men,  suffered,  and  died 
upon  the  cross.  He  was  buried  in  Joseph's  tomb ;  He  arose  from  the  dead,  and 
ever  liveth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  to  intercede  for  us. 

There  is  but  one  condition  of  entrance  into  the  Kingdom  of  God,  although  this 
condition  has  two  aspects.  We  are  saved  through  acceptance  of  the  redemption 
wrought  for  us. 


*  THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  CONVERSATIONS. 

by   rea^.   jaimks   g.   vose,   j).    t)., 

Pastor  Emeritus  of  the  Beneficent  Congregational  Church, 
Providence,  R.  I. 

The  Gospel  of  John  may  be  called  the  Gospel  of  the  Conversations,  for,  more 
than  any  other,  it  reports  particular  interviews  of  our  Lord  with  individuals.  In 
the  first  chapter  we  have  the  conversation  with  Nathanael ;  in  the  second,  with  the 
mother  of  Jesus  ;  in  the  third,  with  Nicodemus  ;  in  the  fourth,  with  the  woman  of 
Samaria ;  and  passing  by  others  less  striking,  we  have  the  interviews  with  Mary 
and  Martha,  and  the  words  spoken  at  the  Supper;  until  after  the  Resurrection,  the 
history  closes  with  question  and  answer,  as  thej'  passed  between  our  Lord  and 
Mary  Magdalene,  and  Thomas,  and  finally  with  Peter  and  John. 

These  conversations,  too,  are  real  conversations,  for  Jesus  was  not  like  some 
famous  men,  who  discourse  in  monologue.  Even  His  addresses  to  the  multitude 
were  often  interrupted  by  the  inquiries  or  remarks  of  others,  and,  in  smaller  com- 
panies lie  guided  the  conversation,  while  apparently  taking  the  lesser  part.  The 
"golden  silences  "of  Jesus  are  very  marked,  and  George  Borrow,  in  that  fasci- 
nating book,  "The  Bible  in  Spain,"  relates  that  the  taciturn  people  of  the  little 
Republic  of  Andorra  noticed  these  silences,  and  said  of  them,  "Jesus  played  the 
Andorran."  While  He  spoke  with  authority,  yet  He  dispelled  all  feeling  of  re- 
straint, and  even  seemed  to  awaken  in  others  unwonted  freedom.  Not  unfre- 
quently  He  gave  the  thought,  and  let  them  do  the  talking.  He  had  the  rare  quality 
of  a  good  listener,  and  He  heard  v  ith  such  deep  penetration  that  His  answers,  as  is 
sometimes  plainly  stated,  were  directed  to  the  thoughts  of  men  rather  than  to  their 
words. 

It  is  often  said  that  Jesus  was  the  greatest  of  preachers,  but  not  so  often  that 
He  preferred  to  converse.  Then  indeed  He  appears  to  have  been  most  truly  Him- 
self, when,  in  direct  appeal  to  some  individual  heart,  or  in  the  effort  to  comfort  or 
instruct  a  few.  He  utters  those  great  sayings  which  shine  like  the  fixed  stars  in  the 
firmament.  He  never  appears  to  have  saved  anything  for  a  lai^ge  audience,  nor 
feared  that  any  utterance  of  truth,  breathed  into  the  receptive  heart  of  however 
humble  a  hearer,  could  fail  of  its  effect.  Thus,  if  you  would  seek  for  the  doc- 
trines of  Jesus,  the  great  and  distinctive  revelations  which  mark  His  career  on 
earth,  you  will  find  them  in  His  private  interviews  with  Nicodemus,  and  the  sisters 
of  Bethanj^  and  the  woman  of  Samaria. 

And  these  conversations  all  have  a  personal  tvum.  They  attach  great  prin- 
ciples to  common  life,  and  they  lead  people  through  their  own  needs  to  the  grand- 
est spiritual  truths.  Jesus  evidently  has  confidence  in  the  living  power  of  truth, 
and  therefore  does  not  press  it,  but  leaves  His  hearers  to  follow  out  the  idea  and 
inake  the  application  for  themselves.  We  are  surprised  at  the  dialogue  which  is 
taken  up  Avith  the  sayings  of  others,  until  we  learn  the  germinant  power  of  Jesus' 
words,  and  see  them,  as  it  were,  growing  before  our  eyes  in  other  minds. 

With  the  woman  of  Samaria,  Jesus  opens  the  conversation  with  a  simple  re- 
cjuest.     He   asks  a  favor,  almost  the  only  one  that  is  recorded  of  His  asking,  and 


■  Printed  originally  in  the  Andover  Review, 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  CONVERSATIONS.  4S</ 

the  smallest  that  could  he  asked.  Thus  throwinj;;  Iliinselt  on  her  svinpathj.  and 
willing  to  be  dependent  on  her  tor  the  relief  of  His  manifest  weariness,  lie  oix-ns 
the  way  for  interchange  of  thought.  But  the  prejudice  that  is  strong  in  her  people 
cannot  be  repressed,  and  she  utters  it  not  scornfully,  but  with  a  feeling  of  surprise. 
Indifferent  to  this  narrow  prejudice,  and  seeing  that  tlu-  time  is  not  vet  come  to 
overthrow  it,  our  Lord  passes  into  what  wo  may  call  the  beautiful  parable  of  "The 
Water  of  Life,"  which  the  woman,  taking  half  literally,  and  in  lieep  amazement  at 
the  power  of  His  speech,  answers  with  a  counter  petition,  that  He  wouiti  give  her 
this  water,  "that  I  thirst  not,  neither  come  all  the  way  hither  to  draw."  The 
favor  that  Jesus  asked  is  forgotten.  The  relation  is  changed,  or  rather,  each  has 
shown  a  willingness  to  trust  the  other,  which  is  the  closest  bond  of  sympathy. 
But  Jesus,  perceiving  that  He  has  made  no  definite  impression  upon  her,  save  that 
of  friendliness  and  a  curious  interest,  turns  suddenly  to  the  woman  with  the  per- 
sonal command,  "Go,  call  thy  husband,  and  come  hither";  and  when  she  denies 
the  existence  of  such  a  relationship,  He  turns  the  leaves  of  her  past  history  with 
an  unsparing  hand.  To  all  this  she  hvmibly  rejoins,  as  being  no  longer  able  to 
evade  the  truth,  "  Sir,  I  perceive  that  Thou  art  a  prophet";  and  then,  as  if  still 
wishing  to  turn  the  conversation,  she  hastens  to  recall  the  distinction  between  her 
own  people  and  the  Jews.  We  can  almost  see  her  confusion,  which  she  attempts 
to  hide  in  this  manner.  Coleridge  somewhere  says  that  "  Multitudes  never  blush," 
and  that  it  is  safer  to  appeal  to  the  honor  and  conscience  of  an  individual  than  to 
a  crowd.  At  any  rate,  she  drops  the  subject,  but  the  thought  still  lingers  in  her 
mind.  The  personal  matter  is  the  central  point  of  the  conversation,  as  we  shall 
afterwards  more  clearly  see;  and  yet  she  prepares  for  herself  a  further  humiliation 
b\  bringing  up  the  great  subject  of  dispute   between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans. 

And  now  our  Lord,  referring  no  more  to  the  personal  charge  which  He  has 
brought  home  to  her  conscience,  addresses  her  with  a  sublimity  rising  to  the  height 
of  His  grandest  utterances,  describing  the  nature  of  worship,  and  the  approach  to 
the  Father  that  is  open  to  every  longing  heart  in  all  the  world.  But  in  the  midst 
of  it  He  meets  and  overthrows  the  prejudice  which  she  first  introduced,  and  sweeps 
it  out  ot  the  way  with  a  lofty  and  decisive  sentence  that  leaves  no  room  for  answer  : 
••  Ye  worship  ye  know  not  what.  We  know  what  we  worship,  for  salvation  is  of 
the  Jews".  Why  does  she  not  resent  this  humbling  sentence?  Why  does  not  her 
Samaritan  hatred  rise  in  defiance,  as  it  would  have  done,  one  must  think,  had  Jesus 
thus  addressed  her  at  the  first?  Ah,  it  is  because  of  that  stroke  with  which  He  had 
smitten  her  conscience  when  He  laid  bare  the  deformity  of  her  past  life.  She  has 
no  heart  to  contend  against  this.  Her  quick  intuition  brings  up  the  thought  of 
the  promised  Messiah,  and  the  revelation  of  herself  that  He  has  made  compels  her 
to  answer  with  docility,  "  When  He  is  come.  He  will  tell  us  all  things".  What 
does  she  refer  to?  What  is  in  her  mind  as  she  gives  this  answer,  half  musingly.' 
The  great  and  spiritual  truths  of  which  Jesus  has  spoken?  Yes.  but  much  more 
the  revelation  of  her  own  heart  and  life.  She  may  seek  to  change  the  subject  ;  our 
Lord  may  forbear,  as  He  did,  to  press  it  any  further,  but  the  arrow  has  hit  the  mark 
and  clings  to  the  wound.  The  revelation  of  the  Christ  to  her,  as  to  every  one,  is 
in  what  He  has  told  her  of  herself.  This  is  what  Paul  means  by  "  being  appre- 
hended "of  the  Christ.  And  that  we  have  in  this  the  true  impression  that  was 
made  on  her  mind  appears  from  her  own  description  of  the  interview  :  "  Come,  see 
a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that  ever  I  did.     Can  this  be  the  Christ?" 

Here  is  the  triumph  of  the  conversation,  that  she  had  been  made  to  see  her- 
self, and  acknowledge  the  heart-searching  power  of  the  Redeemer.  Says  Thomas 
a   Kempis.    "  It  askith  great  skill    to  know  how  to  hold  converse  with  Jesus";   but 


46o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.JOHN. 

he  adds,  "  Be  thou  humble  and  peaceable,  and  Jesus  will  be  with  thee."  In  accept- 
ing His  searching  rebuke,  she  has  discovered  the  glory  of  His  character  and  mis- 
sion. 

If,  then,  we  would  understand  the  effect  of  our  Lord's  conversation  with  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  we  must  read  it  in  the  message  she  bore  to  her  people  :  "  Come, 
see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that  ever  I  did.  Can  this  be  the  Christ.'" 
She  says  nothing  of  His  promise  of  never-failing  water,  nor  of  His  grand  sen- 
tences about  worship,  still  less  of  His  being  a  Jew  and  proclaiming  their  super- 
iority. The  one  thought  which  fills  her  mind,  and  gives  a  glow  and  a  fascination 
to  her  report  that  cannot  be  resisted,  is  what  He  has  told  her  of  herself.  This  is 
her  message,  her  watchword,  so  to  speak,  that  passed  from  lip  to  lip  as  she  hur- 
ried on  among  her  townsfolk,  so  that  we  read  :  "  Many  of  the  Samaritans  of  that 
city  believed  on  Him  for  the  saying  of  the  woman,  '  He  told  me  all  that  ever  I 
did'". 

It  were  hardly  needful  to  bring  into  clearer  light  those  principles  of  human 
nature  which  are  here  involved.  We  need  a  friend  who  knows  us  altogether,  and 
to  whom  we  can  be  perfectly  joined.  Such  sympathy  and  a  thorough  comprehen- 
sion are  vainly  sought  in  mere  human  relations.  As  says  the  author  of  the 
"  Christian  Year"  : 

"  Not  even  the  tenderest  heart,  and  next  our  own, 
Knrws  half  the  reasons  why  we  smile  or  sigh  ". 

This  thorough  comprehension  our  Lord  Jesus  only  can  supply.  He  knows 
every  thought  and  feeling.  He  holds  the  threads  of  our  past  life,  seeing  every  error, 
every  crime.  And  He  is  ready  to  interweave  His  own  love  and  knowledge,  upon 
which  we  may  rest.  He  interprets  with  personal  love  and  power  the  language  of 
the  writer  of  the  139th  Psalm  :  "  O  Lord,  Thou  hath  searched  me  and  known 
me.  *  *  *  Thou  understandeth  my  thought  afar  off.  *  *  *  Thou  art 
acquainted  with  all  my  ways". 

It  seems  at  first  a  startling  hyperbole,  that  the  woman  should  have  gone 
through  the  town  saying  to  every  one,  "  He  told  me  all  that  ever  I  did".  Why,  it 
was  but  a  single  sentence  in  which  He  had  spoken  of  her  personal  relations.  But 
there  was  no  other  way  to  describe  the  truth.  How  tame,  and  false  even,  had  she 
said,  "  He  knows  some  things  about  me",  or,  "  He  knows  the  chief  things"  ;  for 
His  knowledge  covers  all  and  admits  no  less  a  compass  than  this —  "  He  told  me 
all  that  ever  I  did". 

The  truth  which  is  here  made  known  to  us  and  answers  to  every  Christian 
experience  is,  that  Jesus  reveals  to  us  the  hidden  life.  He  enters  our  conscious- 
ness, and  becomes  another  self  within  us.  A  little  child,  tired  of  play,  sits  down 
by  his  mother,  and  she  tells  him  something  that  happened  years  ago  ;  stories 
of  his  infant  days,  and  of  his  little  brothers  and  sisters,  and  of  the  household  pets. 
He  is  amazed  that  she  can  tell  so  much  of  what  has  gone  on  about  him  ;  that  she 
knows  more  of  him  that  even  he  does  himself.  From  other  lips  he  would  scarcely 
believe  it  true;  but  he  listens,  with  rapt  amazement,  to  some  story  of  the  earliest 
opening  of  his  mind,  and  when  it  ceases,  he  cries  out,  "Tell  that  again".  This 
is  the  nearness  of  a  mother's  love.  It  is  a  consciousness  that  enwraps  our  own ;  a 
memory  that  encloses  ours,  and  holds  it  in  custody.  What  we  were  from  the  first, 
and  what  were  the  earliest  movements  of  thought  and  feeling  —  these  are  in  her 
keeping  more  than  our  own.  But  there  is  a  higher  than  human  consciousness 
that  enwraps  ours.     There  is  a  deeper  love,  as  there  is  a  more  far-reaching  knowl- 


THE  GOSPEL  OE  THE  CONVERSATIONS.  461 

edge.  It  is  Jesus  who  comes  and  sits  by  us,  as  IIc>iat  on  the  well  of  S^char ;  and 
into  our  ears  He  pours  the  story  of  our  life  —  the  wasted  hours,  the  false  and  self- 
ish passions,  the  unthinking  chase  after  worthless  toys.  To  us,  also,  lie  will 
reveal  all  things.  Rightly  listening,  we  shall  say.  with  humble  vet  with  <,'lad 
surprise,  '•  lie  told  me  all  that  ever  I  did". 

Thus  Jesus  becomes  another  self  within  us.  There  is  that  familiaritv  of  inler- 
eourse  which  is  the  highest  delight  of  the  soul.  And  lie  does  not  hesitate  to  use 
figures  regarding  it  which  present  the  simplest  picture  of  intimate  acquaintance 
with  us.  "  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  ;  if  any  man  hear  My  voice  and 
open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and  sup  with  him,  and  he  with  Me".  It  is 
no  class  of  men,  no  favored  few,  to  whom  He  offers  His  inmost  heart ;  but  to 
each,  in  just  the  present  state  of  character  and  knowledge,  with  the  faults  of 
to-day  still  cleaving,  with  the  crimes  and  follies  of  the  past  still  in  memory.  Nor 
can  He  ever  afterward  reject  us  because  of  past  shame;  for  the  first  thing  He  does 
is  to  tell  us  all  that  we  ever  did.  Other  friends  might  grow  cold  when  they  came 
to  know  our  history  ;  our  past  associations  and  misdeeds  might  alienate  them  or 
breed  disgust ;  but  not  so  with  Jesus.  He  knows  us  altogether,  and.  accepting 
Him,  we  enter  into  full  fellowship  with  a  forgiving  and  faithful  Lord. 

This  perfect  knowledge  of  the  Christ  is  our  greatest  safeguard.  It  is  needful, 
to  defend  us  from  plunging  farther  into  sin,  that  we  have  the  confidence  of  a 
loving  Saviour.  When  we  are  on  the  verge  of  temptation,  the  thought  that  Ik- 
knows  and  grieves  over  our  past  sins  may  win  us  back.  When  ready  to  despair  of 
His  favor,  or  to  think  it  impossible  that  such  as  we  should  be  accepted  or  enal^kd 
to  do  anything  for  His  honor,  we  may  remind  ourselves  that,  when  He  ga\e  us  the 
invitation  to  repent,  He  weighed  the  full  burden  of  our  transgressions.  He  ilid  not 
undertake  a  work  of  which  He  knew  not  the  magnitude.  With  joy  we  may  press 
close  to  our  hearts  the  saying  of  the  woman,  "He  told  me  all  that  ever  I  did". 

The  conversation  of  Jesus  with  the  woman  at  the  well  throws  light  on  the 
subject  of  confession.  That  the  practice  of  auricular  confession,  which  pre- 
vailed in  the  Media'val  church,  had  a  basis  in  the  sincere  longing  of  the  penitent, 
there  is  no  doubt.  Indeed,  confession  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  repentance,  or  at 
least  the  outward  manifestations  of  it.  The  danger  arose  from  magnifying  the 
outward  until  it  absorbed  and  drew  away  the  life  of  the  inward.  This  could 
hardlv  be  otherwise,  since  hiunan  confessors  are  too  prone  to  claim  authority,  and 
the  idea  of  having  fulfilled  a  painful  task  makes  men  imagine  that  their  guilt  is 
relieved.  But  when  the  confessional  is  abolished,  there  remains  often  a  slavish 
view  of  repentance,  which  takes  away  its  true  blessedness.  Some  are  troubled 
because  they  know  not  how  long  they  ought  to  repent.  Ought  they  to  mention  in 
words  every  sin  they  have  ever  committed?  If  they  forget  or  omit  any,  will  (>od 
pardon.?  If  they  do  not  rightly  estimate  the  guilt  of  all,  and  consider  some  their 
chief  sins  which  are  not  so,  will  God  have  patience  with  their  mistakes  .- 

How  happilv  is  all  this  relieved  when  we  learn  the  noon-day  lesson  taught  at 
the  well  of  Sychar,  that  it  is  the  Christ  who  reveals  us  to  ourselves  !  It  is  not  for 
vou  to  find  out  vour  sin,  but  for  Him  to  reveal  it  to  you.  With  the  Psalmist,  you 
ask  God  to  search  you,  "  that  you  may  be  led  in  the  way  everlasting  ".  Vou  are  to 
become  acquainted  with  your  own  heart  by  having  Him  read  it  to  you;  and  all 
vou  can  tell  Him  will  be  of  that  which  He  has  told  you  before.  Repentance  now 
loses  its  bitterness,  because  it  is  the  revelation  of  the  Christ.  "Once",  says 
Luther,  "  I  thought  no  word  so  bitter  as  repentance  :  now  there  is  none  more 
sweet,  and  those  passages  in  the  Bible  that  used  to  terrify  me  now  smile  and  sport 
about    me".      In    the   same  spirit,  Augustine  says,   in    his  "  Confessions",  "   I  will 


462  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

now  call  to  mind  my  past  foulness  and  the  carnal  corruptions  of  my  soul  ;  not 
because  I  love  them,  but  that  I  may  love  Thee,  O  my  God.  For  love  of  Thy  love  I 
do  it ;  reviewing  my  most  wicked  ways  in  the  very  bitterness  of  my  remembrance, 
that  Thou  mayst  grow  sweet  unto  me".  The  power  of  such  a  revelation  of  the 
Christ  is  manifest  in  the  fact,  that  the  largest  harvest  of  souls  ever  gathered  while 
on  earth  was  reapec^  in  the  two  days  He  spent  at  Sychar.  A  soul  brought  face  to 
face  with  Him,  beholding  His  glory  by  being  self-revealed,  is  a  lit  instrument  to 
convey  to  others  the  advent  of  the  Christ.  Here  is  the  song  of  Bethlehem,  "  Peace 
and  good  will".  The  woman  waits  not  for  a  full  rehearsal  of  all  the  windings  of 
her  guilt,  for  He  has  known  and  felt  it  all. 

For  us  there  is  the  same  freedom  of  approach.  Listening  to  Him,  you  also, 
shall  learn  to  confess.  Receiving  into  your  heart  His  love  and  sympathy,  your 
lips  shall  be  opened  to  tell  Him  every  want  and  grief,  and  prayer  shall  be  only  the 
communion  of  kindred  minds.  The  saying  of  the  woman  shall  become  your 
saying,  "  He  told  me  all  that  ever  I  did  ". 


THE    PRINCIPLE   OF    MISSIONS    IN   THE   GOSPEL    OF    JOHN. 

BV     RKV.     W.     C.     HITTINCt,     I  >.     I)., 

Pastor  ok  thk  Mount  Morris  Baptist  C'Hi-Rrn,  New  \'ork,  N.  V. 

There  are  many  motives  for  missions,  amonj^  which  we  may  mention  : — 

1.  The  imperial  motive  of  loyalty  to  the  king  (Matt.  28:  19). 

2.  The  theological  motive  (Luke  14:  19,  10)  of  the  "lost"  condition  of 
men. 

3.  The  philanthropic  motive  (Matt.  22  :  39)  of  the  wish  to  share  what  we 
have  with  others. 

4.  The  fiduciary  motive  (Matt.  lo :  8a)  of  stewardship  of  what  we  have  (Matt. 
24:  45-51). 

5.  The  biological  motive  which  is  emphasized  in  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

John  refers  to  the  "  Kingdom  of  God"  only  twice,  (i)  In  the  account  of  the 
talk  with  Nicodemus,  who  was  looking  for  a  kingdom  (3  :  3,  5),  and  (/>)  in  the 
account  of  the  trial  before  Pilate  (18  :  33-38).  when  our  Lord  is  answering  a  charge 
of  sedition. 

According  to  the  first  three  Gospels  the  great  blessing  brought  by  the  King  to 
the  world  was  the  Kingdom  of  God.  How  natural,  then,  for  them  to  record  those 
imperial  words  in  which  the  Holy  Monarch  commands  His  followers  to  conquer  the 
world.  According  to  the  Fourth  Gospel,  the  great  blessing  brought  by  "  the  life 
which  was  the  light  of  men  "  is  everywhere  described  by  the  writer  as  eternal  life, 
or  the  life  of  the  Eternal  One  in  us.  From  this  conception  he  gets  his  favorite 
word  life.  How  natural  that  he  should  carefully  observe  the  workings  of  that  life 
which  is  from  above,  when  it  enters  into  human  hearts  !  His  Gospel  is  a  study  in 
spiritual  biology.  What  the  synoptists  conceive  of  as  the  spreading  of  a  kingdom, 
John  contemplates  as  the  reproduction  of  a  life.  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  like" 
is  the  great  parabolic  preface  in  the  first  three  Gospels  which  introduces  us  to  a 
wealth  of  analogies  from  many  realms  of  organic  existence.  No  such  verbal  herald 
announces  a  coming  simile  in  the  Fourth  Gospel.  John  leads  us  immediately  into 
the  presence  of  life.  He  records  not  parables,  but  incidents ;  not  figures  which 
illustrate  separate  functions,  but  facts  that  unfold  to  our  delighted  eyes  the  life 
itself,  active  in  all  its  functions.  Indeed,  his  entire  narrative  is  a  missionary  docu- 
ment of  the  most  striking  character.  He  avows  this  and  nothing  else  as  his  pur- 
pose. "  Manv  other  signs  therefore  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  the  disciples, 
which  are  not  written  in  this  book  :  but  these  are  written,  that  ye  may  believejthat 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  and  that  believing  ye  may  have  life  in  His 
name"  (John  20:  30,  31). 

All  life  («)  organizes  itself,  (b)  grows  by  assimilation  of  externals,  (r)  wastes 
in  the  exercise  of  selection,  (d)  reproduces  itself.  In  the  last  of  these  functions  we 
find  the  missionary  principle  according  to  John's  Gospel.  Let  us  take  some  illus- 
trations : — 

(i)  John  I.  The  first  chapter  is  in  part  missionary  autohiograjihy.  It 
records  introductions  and  reproductions.  On  a  Sunday  morning  the  Baptist  stood 
■with  two  of  his  disciples  on  the  river  bank.  He  loses  no  time  in  pointing  his  com- 
panions to  "  The  Lamb  of  God".     They  leave  the  guidepost  to  follow  "  the  way", 

463 


464  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

and  the  same  day  discover  the  Messiah.  What  is  the  first  impulse  that  masters 
these  new  disciples  of  Jesus  r  Each  runs  with  haste  to  find  his  own  brother.  It  is 
a  race  of  rivals.  Andrew  first  finds  his  brother.  He  brings  Simon  to  Jesus,  and 
does  a  good  day's  work  for  the  world. 

Again,  Jesus  finds  Philip,  and  at  once  Philip  finds  Nathanael.  Not  a  day  is 
allowed  to  pass.  With  noble  words,  the  fullest  meaning  of  which  he  could  not 
have  understood,  he  affirms  that  Moses  and  the  prophets  wrote  of  Jesus.  When 
objection  is  made  to  Nazareth  as  a  source  of  good,  the  only  answer  is  that  born 
from  experience,  and  calling  to  experiment,  "  Come  and  see  ". 

Why  is  it  that  on  the  opening  day  of  the  ministry  of  our  Lord  these  four  men 
begin  their  effort  to  bring  others .'  No  "  Great  Commission  "  had  been  uttered,  no 
hope  of  reward  had  been  stimulated,  no  crowns  or  thrones  had  been  offered,  no 
jjunishment  had  been  threatened  for  the  fruitless.  Not  a  motive  usually  urged 
today  for  evangelistic  work  and  missionary  activity  had  been  revealed.  So  far  as 
the  narrative  gives  light,  their  eager  words  and  swift  feet  and  cordial  hands  were 
the  pure  expressions  of  that  spontaneous,  free,  automatic  new  life  which  had  begun 
to  throb  in  their  hearts.  This  new  life,  uncultured,  deficient  in  true  apprehension 
of  the  Messiah,  but  strong  in  its  vitality,  begins  by  asserting  its  reproductive 
instinct.  It  will  have  another.  So  close  is  the  bond  between  finding  for  one's  self 
and  finding  another,  that  the  birthday  of  the  church  is  its  first  missionary  day  also. 
The  church  and  the  propaganda  were  born  together.  Its  initial  impulse  is  evan- 
gelistic. This  propagating  instinct  controls  their  souls  at  the  same  time  that  their 
affection  for  Jesus  awakes.  We  are  convinced  after  reading  in  v.  41  the  glorious 
"  Eureka",  "  I  have  found  Him",  that  immediately  afterward  we  will  read,  "  And 
he  brought  him  to  Jesus  ".  Apostles  are  evolved  from  disciples,  as  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear  from  the  seed.  So  normally  does  bringing  grow  out  of  finding,  so  organ- 
ically does  missionary  work  develop  as  the  bloom,  flower  and  fruit  of  discipleship. 
It  is  only  the  beautiful  effort  to  reproduce  in  others  the  joy  we  ourselves  have 
experienced.  "  That  which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
that  which  Ave  beheld,  and  our  hands  handled,  concerning  the  Word  of  life  *  *  * 
declare  we  unto  you  also,  that  je  also  may  have  fellowship  M'ith  us  ;  and  our  fellow- 
ship is  with  the  Father,  and  with  His  Son  Jesus  Christ"  (i  John  i  :  1-3).  So  this 
John  writes  a  half  century  afterward  concerning  the  motive  of  His  life,  begotten  on 
that  first  day. 

(2)  John  4.  Nearly  a  year  after  this  time,  Jesus  "must  needs  "  go  through 
Samaria.  Beside  the  historic  well  He  meets  a  woman.  Absolutely  no  tangential 
point  existed  between  the  Christ  and  this  woman  but  their  common  desire  for 
water.  Through  this  coincident  want,  in  a  conversation  matchless  for  delicacy  and 
tact.  He  reveals  Himself  as  the  Messiah.  All  consciousness  of  her  purpose  at  the 
well  is  eclipsed  for  the  moment,  as  truly  as  the  hunger  of  the  preacher  is  forgotten 
in  His  ministry  to  the  single,  needy  heart.  She  leaves  her  waterpot,  enters  Sychar, 
and  becomes  the  first  city  missionary  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament.  She  is 
not  content  with  relating  experiences,  but  must  couple  with  them  an  invitation.  It 
is  the  same  old  story  of  the  avitomatic  life — "  Come  and  see  ".  The  crowds  follow. 
In  great  procession  the  people  stream  out  of  the  city  gates,  and,  beholding  them, 
Jesus  points  His  disciples  to  the  opportunity,  and  says:  "The  fields  are  white 
unto  the  harvest".  The  very  figure  He  uses  suggests  the  sowing  and  reaping. 
This  is  indeed  what  had  occurred.  There  was  no  command  to  the  woman.  No 
more  unlikely  field  for  missionary  work  was  ever  entered  than  Samaria.  Yet  no 
miracle  was  worked  there  to  prepare  for  or  authenticate  the  message.  The  agitation 
of  the  citv  arose  from  the  earnest  and  profound  impulse  of  one  soul  to  bring  others. 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  MISSIONS.  465 

There  was  the  instinct  of  vitality  to  reproduce  in  thcni  the  same  consciousness 
which  she  herself  possessed.  The  story  of  the  first  chapter  of  John  is  thus  repented 
in  the  fourth  chapter.  The  steps  in  both  are  («)  hospitality  to  testimony,  (*) 
investigation,  (r)  experience  and  {d)  proclamation  of  truth.  All  honest  hearinu 
ends  in  preaching. 

(3)  John  9.  A  uian  born  blind  was  healed.  lie  knew  Jesus  only  as  healer. 
With  what  superb  wit  he  refutes  the  charge  that  Jesus  was  a  sinner,  and  what 
magnificent  confidence  underlies  his  creed  concerning  his  benefactor.  Severe 
cross-questioning,  acute  efforts  to  entangle  him  in  criticism  of  Jesus,  all  fail. 
Asked  once  more  about  his  blessing,  he  begins  to  preach,  "  I  have  told  you  and  ye 
did  not  hear,  why  do  you  wish  to  hear  it  again  }  Do  you  also  wish  to  become  His 
disciples  ? "  What  are  the  steps  of  his  ascent  from  receptivity  to  activity  }  A  blind 
man,  a  healed  man  with  an  invincible  experience,  a  witness  and  an  advocate. 
These  are  the  stages  of  his  swift  progress.  lie  will  not  wait  for  the  belated  phil- 
osophy of  his  blessing.  His  vital  experience  Hies  on  rushing  wings  to  bear  the 
tidings  of  blessing,  and  gratefully  to  win  other  hearts  to  love  his  deliverer,  while 
his  slow  theology  is  putting  on  its  shoes.  All  the  more  forceful  is  this  incident  as 
an  illustration  of  our  principle,  because  not  until  after  his  appealing  question  did 
he  believe  on  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God.  The  impulse  immediately  follows  the 
blessing  and  precedes  the  enlightenment.  He  would  have  others  know  what  he  had 
discovered.  Once  more,  in  the  ninth  chapter,  faith  is  fruitful,  and  to  the  list  of  the 
Judean  Baptist,  the  Galilean  sons  of  Zebedee,  Andrew  and  Philip,  and  the  woman 
of  Samaria,  we  must  add  the  Jerusalem  blind  man  as  illustrations  of  our  principle. 

(4)  John  12.  On  the  last  Tuesday  of  Jesus'  life  certain  Hellenes,  or  pure 
Greeks,  not  proselytes,  desire  to  see  Jesus.  The  same  Philip  who  found  Nathanael 
is  ready  to  lead  them  to  the  (jreat  Teacher.  Here  again,  as  in  the  first  chapter,  we 
find  together  introdviction  and  reproduction.  Of  what  did  Jesus  speak  to  them.' 
Of  that  which  filled  His  mind  at  the  time.  What  words  convey  His  view  of  the 
great  event  on  Calvary?  When  He  speaks  to  Nicodemus,  the  Jewish  rider,  He 
chooses  a  familiar  illustration  from  Hebrew  history  :  "As  Moses  lifted  up  the  ser- 
pent in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up".  Hut  to  those 
Greeks,  who  probably  cared  little  for  that  history.  He  speaks  the  great  parable  ot 
nature.  "Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die  it  ab'detb  by  itself 
alone,  but  if  it  die  it  beareth  much  fruit ".  "So  it  is  with  life"  He  contimies: 
'"whoever  sa\es  but  does  not  sow  his  life  will  lose  it.  Whoever  sows  biU  does  not 
save  his  life,  will  eventually  receive  it  back  uuiltiplieil  indefinitely.  It  is  true  ot  all 
life,  and  therefore  of  yours  and  Mine.  If  1  he  not  lifteil  up,  I  abide  by  Myselt 
alone.  If  I  die  I  reproduce  Myself  in  millions  of  hearts.  I  will  draw  all  men  unto 
Me,  if  I  am  lifted  up".  The  Christ  without  a  cross  must  be  forever  alone.  The 
Christ  on  the  cross  exhibits  the  law  of  the  cross  as  that  of  the  harvest.  There  will 
be  duplication  and  reduplication.  Christ  the  seed.  Christians  the  harvest.  The 
cross  and  missions  are  here  forever  married  in  holy  union  by  Jesus  Himself  under 
the  holy  law  of  reproduction.  "What  God  has  joined  together,  let  no  man  \w\ 
asunder".  So  the  Teacher  Himself  seals  this  thought.  How  real  and  rich  the 
Johannine  conception  of  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  I  F'rom  this  author  the 
"Great  Commission"  is  indeed  absent,  but  from  the  Jordan  to  the  cross  in  His 
Gospel  there  is  the  profound  truth  constantly  asserted  :  Kvery  real  disciple  brings 
another.     The  church  itself  is  the  harvest  from  the  Christ-sown  seed  on  Calvary. 

Missionary  enthusiasm  is  thus  the  revelation  of  the  vitality  of  the  new  life  in 
Christ.  Regeneration  issues  in  spiritual  reproduction  as  normally  as  generation 
produces  generation    in  the  physical   life.      Far  be  it   from  any  one  to  abate  one    jot 


466  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

or  tittle  of  absolute  imperativeness  of  the  King's  order  to  go  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  good  news  to  every  creature.  Without  treason  to  His  authority  no  one 
dares  dilute  the  power  of  the  sacredness  of  that  command.  Yet  from  the  Fourth 
Gospel  we  see  how  true  it  is  that  men  filled  with  the  Christ  life  would  have  made 
the  effort  to  win  others  to  such  a  glorious  Lord.  The  great  mandate  rests  upon 
the  life  that  is  within  our  souls.  The  followers  of  the  Saviour  who  gives  such  a  life 
should  carry  the  message  that  brings  that  life  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  because  of 
that  life  itself.  Worldwide  evangelization  is  the  ideal  of  spiritual  life.  Questions 
of  geography  are  impertinent.     What  then  is  missionary  work? 

Merely  Andrew  and  John  seeking  their  kin,  and  saving  :  "  We  have  found  the 
Christ !  "  Philip  in  all  lands  answering  to  the  prejudiced  Nathanaels,  "  Come  and 
see"  ;  the  woman  preaching  out  of  a  full  experience,  "  Come,  see  a  man  who  told 
me  all  things  that  ever  I  did.  Can  this  be  the  Christ .'' ";  those  who  proclaim  in  the 
strength  of  their  unanswerable  experiences,  "One  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas  I 
was  blind" — incontestable  preamble — "now  I  see" — inalienable  assurance — "Do 
you  also  wish  to  become  His  disciples  .'' " — glorious  invitation  !  Missionary  activity 
is  onlj'  the  law  of  the  cross  in  our  daily  lives,  sowing  ourselves  and  reaping  a 
harvest,  scattering  all  that  we  are  in  all  spheres  and  receiving  back  multiplied  the 
power  we  scattered.  Missionary  biography  ?  What  is  it  but  the  story  of  men  and 
women  who  felt  some  of  the  celestial  passion  that  brought  Jesus  to  this  world,  and 
buried  themselves,  as  we  say,  in  all  lands,  and  among  all  races,  that  from  their 
germinal  consecration  there  may  be  reaped  a  garner  full  of  saved  lives  out  of  the 
very  soil  in  which  they  sowed  themselves. 

(i)  It  is  true  of  the  divine  life  itself.  God  had  not  finished  His  work  when 
He  made  the  material  universe.  The  cosmos  is  simply  the  materialization  of  the 
divine  thoughts.  The  revelation  of  the  divine  personality  was  yet  to  come.  In 
that  great  resolution,  "Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness".  He 
would  duplicate  Himself,  so  far  as  it  was  possible,  in  terms  of  human  life.  Man 
was  intended  to  be  God's  shadow  cast  on  earth.  "  We  are  His  offspring".  He  is 
a  Father  and  we  are  to  be  His  sons.  The  incarnation  reveals  creation's  ideal. 
Jesus  was  the  divine  artist  proof  of  God.  Immanuel  discloses  the  meaning  of 
image  and  likeness.  Redemption  is  the  process  of  making  us  in  the  image  of 
Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God.  Regeneration  is  that  act  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
which  makes  us  spiritual.  The  church  is  spiritual  because  it  is  composed  of  those 
who  have  been  born  of  the  Spirit.     The  ideal  church  is  a  paraphrase  of  Christ. 

(2)  This  must  also  be  true  of  the  Christian  life  precisely  because  it  is  true  of 
God's  life.  All  grades  of  existence  are  both  limited  and  stimulated  by  this  law  of 
reproduction.  Grass  of  the  field  produces  grass  of  the  field,  fish  of  the  sea  pro- 
duce fish,  fowl  of  the  air  perpetuate  fowl  of  the  air.  There  is  both  conformity  to 
t3'pe  and  perpetuation  of  species.  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  that 
which  is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.  Thoughts  produce  thoughts,  emotions  pro- 
duce emotions,  volitions  produce  volitions.  Sinners  produce  sinners,  therefore 
avoid  them.  Christians  produce  Christians  as  their  spiritual  progeny.  Mission- 
ary activity  is  the  working  out  in  practical  Christian  life  of  this  universal  law  of 
reproduction,  the  religious  analogue  of  this  Edenic  method.  It  explains  the  zeal 
of  prophet  and  apostle,  it  interprets  the  glorious  helplessness  of  those  who  said, 
"  We  cannot  but  speak  the  things  we  have  both  seen  and  heard"  (Acts  4:20).  As 
the  church  is  the  divine  life  in  men  organizing  itself ;  as  sanctification  is  the  divine 
life  more  and  more  fully  enlarging  itself  and  growing  within  us  ;  as  separation 
from  the  world,  that  peculiarity  of  the  people  of  God  which  is  a  mark  of  the  holy 
nation,   is  only  the  treating  of  worldliness   as   waste,   so   missionary  effort   in  all 


THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  MISSIONS.  467 

forms  is  only  that  divine  life  nuiltiplying  itself  in  others.  The  whole  mass  is 
leavened  bv  multiplication  of  the  yeast  germ.  Contagion  is  the  method  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Infinite  germination  is  the  process,  and  that  is  infinite  repro- 
duction. Therefore,  how  can  they  believe  in  Ilim  of  whom  they  have  not  heard, 
and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher.'  Life  infusing  life  is  the  law  for  God 
and  nature  and  man..  Mere  machinery  is  like  the  dead  stick  which  Cieha/.i  laid  on 
the  face  of  the  lifeless  boy.  Therefore  no  printing  press  can  ever  render  the  puljiit 
obsolete.  Individual  Christian  life  sustained  by  organization,  growth,  and  waste, 
but  the  species  called  Christian  preserved  through  this  reproduction.  The  divine 
cause  the  life  of  God,  the  human  instrumentality  is  the  personal  energy  of  the 
redeemed  man. 

Missions  and  spiritual  vitality  are  synonymous.  We  have  organization  highly 
developed.  We  are  rich  in  some  rare  characters  that  grow  up  to  bless  the  world. 
Never  as  now  were  religious  specialists  abounding  who  Siiy,  "This  one  thing  I 
do"  and  count  all  else  as  waste.  What  we  need  is  a  vitality  that  shall  reproduce 
ourselves.  The  decline  of  interest  in  missions  is  not  due  to  the  wearing  away  of 
the  romantic  sentimental  veneer  with  which  missionary  life  has  been  overlaid;  nor 
to  the  evaporation  of  motive;  nor  to  the  inroads  of  "  new  theology"  which  is  said 
to  "cut  the  nerve  of  missions";  nor  to  any  of  the  many  like  causes  which  a  shal- 
low observation  assigns.  It  is  due  to  low  vitality  within  ourselves,  to  an  aniemic 
spiritual  life  in  individual  men  and  women.  The  great  question  which  should 
agitate  us  is  not  that  concerning  the  state  of  the  heathen  after  death,  but  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Christian  before  death.  Our  anxieties  should  center  not  so  much  on 
the  relation  of  God's  mercy  to  those  who  never  heard  of  Christ  as  upon  the  selfish 
indolence  of  those  who  profess  to  know  and  love  the  Christ  in  this  life.  Within 
myself,  into  the  depths  of  my  own  heart,  the  keen  searching  probe  must  be  run. 
Am  I  dead  while  I  have  a  name  to  live  .'  Just  here  will  be  found  the  true  explana- 
tion of  most  of  that  indifference  which  we  are,  in  the  evil  spirit  of  self-excuse,  too 
prone  to  attribute  to  other  causes.  Missionary  success  is  only  the  extension, 
through  the  areas  of  concentric  circles,  of  that  first  joyous  impulse  which  we 
found  in  ourselves  when  we  first  believed,  the  enthusiasm  for  others  and  the  eftbrts 
to  have  them  share  our  rapture.  This  reawakened  reproductive  energy  means  joy 
to  our  own  hearts,  a  revival  in  our  own  churches,  and  the  triumph  of  Christ  on 
earth.  Let  us  bring  to  the  quickening  Christ  all  our  feebleness  and  failure,  and 
let  us  count  as  very  little  all  our  ponderous  machinery  of  organization,  our  attain- 
ments in  personal  growth,  and  regard  as  purely  Pharisaic  our  censure  of  worldli- 
ness  as  waste,  unless  with  these  functions  of  life  we  shall  also  have  in  enthusiastic 
abundance  that  propagating  energy  which  belongs  as  essentially  to  genuine  lite  as 
the  others.     Let  every  living  thing  bring  forth  "  after  its  kind  ". 


SANCTIFICATION   THROUGH   THE   TRUTH. 

(St.  John;;i7:  17.) 
by   rev.   horack   w.   tilden,   t).   j)., 

Pastor  of  theSLivermore  Baptist  Church,  Livermore  Palls,  Me. 

This  is  one  of  the  shining  gems  of  John.  Its  light  reaches  through  to  the  very 
end  of  an  accomplished  salvation.  The  prayer  of  Jesus  is  the  same  as  the  purpose 
of  God.  Hence  we  here  learn  that  it  is  the  plan  of  the  Father  to  make  personally 
holy  Christian  believers  by  means  of  His  revealed  word.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  our 
sanctifier,  but  He  employs  the  Scriptures  of  truth  as  an  instrumentality  in  the  work. 
Now  while  this  is  a  divine  work  and  utterly  beyond  the  reach  of  human  power, 
it  cannot  be  that  Christians  are  wholly  passive  while  it  is  being  accomplished. 
Our  sympathetic  co-operation  is  required  and  along  the  line  of  the  Spirit's  working. 
We  must  make  ourselves  familiar  with  the  oracles  of  truth  if  we  would  be  sanctified 
through  them.  Not  even  the  Spirit  of  God  can  cleanse  us  by  something  that  is 
foreign  to  our  thought  or  life.  The  water  of  truth  can  do  nothing  for  the  heart 
unless  it  can  get  into  familiar  contact  with  it.  We  must  seek  the  water  of  the  Avord 
if  we  would  have  our  iniquities  sponged  out  and  our  virtues  developed. 

We  then  dare  to  risk  this  proposition.  The  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon 
the  believer,  is  proportional  to  that  believer's  sympathetic  knowledge  of  the  word 
of  truth.  The  more  men  saturate  their  minds  with  the  thoughts  of  God's  word,  the 
freer  course  will  the  Spirit  have  to  run  through  their  lives  and  be  glorified.  The 
paths  of  His  going  are  thus  many  and  easily  traveled. 

We  are  aware  that  certain  Christians  claim  direct  communication  with  the 
Lord  apart  from  the  word,  and  hence  put  less  than  full  value  upon  it.  But  their 
interior  voices  are  not  infallible  except  they  abide  the  test  of  the  inspired  standard 
which  is  the  criterion  of  all  spirits.  Hence  good  as  the  lives  of  these  people  gene- 
rally are,  they  err  upon  a  fundamental  point,  and  as  a  result  their  eccentricities  are 
often  as  noticeable  as  their  excellencies. 

But  these  are  not  alone  among  those  who  slight  the  word  as  a  means  of  sancti- 
fication.  There  are  found  Christians  in  almost  every  community  who  value  highly 
emotional  experiences  such  as  are  induced  by  the  excitements  of  large  meetings  and 
the  exhortations  of  the  religiously  fervent,  and  reckon  the  state  of  mind  so  reached 
to  be  that  of  complete  sanctification.  Such  emotional  experiences  must  not  be 
lightly  spoken  of,  but  when  they  are  produced  by  a  mere  human  excitation  of  our 
religious  natures  they  soon  burn  out  and  leave  us  poorer  than  before. 

If  you  burn  the  shavings  up  without  setting  the  wood  on  fire,  you  have  not 
wherewith  to  kindle  another  blaze.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose,  as  these  do,  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  the  emotional  person  of  the  Trinity.  He  frequently  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  religious  excitements  met  with,  but  moves  men  always  by 
solid  considerations  through  the  medium  of  substantial  truth.  The  outward  dis- 
play of  Pentecost  will  never  be  repeated.  The  kingdom  comes  without  observation. 
Sanctification  of  character  is  a  sturdy  work.  It  is  not  effected  mainly  by  an  origi- 
nation of  sweet  emotions,  but  by  a  radical  renovation  of  the  whole  life.  It  is  the 
republication  of  God's  moral   image  in  every  thought  and  act  of  the  man,  and  is 

468 


SANCTIFICATfON  THROUGH  THE  TRUTH  469 

often  wrought  out  in  stoiin  and  winter  struggle,  as  other  great  achievements  ure. 

But  coming  to  more  direct  and  positive  ground,  we  find  a  multitude  of  Chris- 
tians, so  large  that  it  includes  almost  all,  confessing,  even  lamenting,  the  lack  of 
the  Spirit's  power  in  the  churches,  and  yet  who  do  not  see  that  it  isthcv  themselves 
that  are  compelling  the  lack.  Thev  have  clogged  the  onh-  channel  through  which 
the  Spirit  can  come  to  the  churches.  Preachers  and  laymen  alike  are  declaring  that 
the  great  crying  need  of  the  Christians  is  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon 
them,  and  yet  they  say  almost  nothing  ahout  the  divinely  prescrii>ed  way  of  enjo\- 
ing  that  influence  without  measure. 

The  sermon  that  is  preached  from  the  depths  of  IMhlical  truth  cannot  get  to 
men  without  being  charged  with  divine  influence.  Let  the  members  of  a  church 
till  theii  minds  with  the  gems  of  inspiration,  and  their  hearts  would  soon  be  full  of 
the  Spirit.  Bvit  we  pray  for  the  presence  and  pow-er  of  God  upon  us  and  then  so 
violate  the  conditions  made  that  we  can  feel  neither.  We  ask  for  God's  blessing  and 
then  make  impossible  the  blessing  we  seek.  No  one  doubts  the  need  of  the  Spirit 
— nor  His  willingness  to  bless — and  yet  we  are  all  the  time  dwelling  on  these,  and 
meanwhile  neglecting  the  means  by  which  the  blessings  can  come. 

What  is  the  use  to  come  to  men  in  a  dark  cave,  and  then  tell  them  their  neeil 
of  sunlight:  or  to  accompany  hungry  men  to  tell  them  that  they  need  food.'  The 
thing  to  be  done  is  to  tell  them  how-  to  get  sunlight  and  food,  (iod  cannot  bless 
any  man  according  to  His  fulness,  but  according  to  the  man's  receptivity.  When 
we  know  where  the  blessing  comes,  we  should  straightway  put  ourselves  into  that 
place.  If  we  seek  the  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  get  divine  truth  into  the  heart, 
through  which  the  Spirit  works. 

Zachaeus  climbed  the  tree  to  find  out  which  way  Jesus  was  going  and  he  gained 
a  guest  and  a  Saviour  in  one.  Get  up  into  the  branches  of  scripture  trutii  and  you 
will  find  the  way  the  Spirit  is  going  and  gain  His  impulse. 

Our  hearts  must  be  turned  Zion-ward  if  we  want  to  reach  Zion.  A  tnan  must 
do  the  best  he  can  to  understand  God,  with  his  natural  powers,  if  he  would  enjoy 
the  divine  aid.  This  is  the  established  order,  first  the  natural,  then  the  spiritual. 
The  water  was,  then  the  wine  came  to  be.  Master  the  truth  of  the  Bible  by  the  use 
of  vour  mental  powers  as  you  would  master  any  other  truth  and  then  the  Spirit 
gives  an  edge  to  it,  vitalizes  it,  turns  it  into  veritable  food,  makes  it  a  flame  to  melt 
the  carnalitv  of  the  nature,  and  brings  it  on  towards  the  current  of  unselfish  living. 

Not  onlv  light  and  heat  come  from  the  sunshine,  but  a  third,  a  chemical  quality 
called  actinic.  The  effect  is  beyond  that  of  light  and  heat.  But  this  actinic  ray 
does  not  act  apart  from  light  and  heat,  but  always  in  their  track,  though  it  is  above 
lioth.  So  the  Spirit's  power  is  always  directed  along  the  line  of  inspired  truth; 
and  in  proportion  as  we  get  fully  inline  of  this  truth  shall  we  feel  the  actinic  power 
of  our  divine  Sanctifier.  We  must  prepare  the  plate  if  we  would  have  the  sun  take 
a  picture  for  us.  So  of  our  work  and  the  Spirit's  ;  if  we  prepare  a  plate  the  picture 
will  not  fail.  There  is  no  electricity  generated  by  the  electric  wire,  but  when  we 
put  up  the  wire  as  a  definite  channel  it  will  do  the  work  we  ask.  So  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  evermore  filling  the  moral  spaces  all  about  us  and  as  ready  to  act  for  our  good  as 
electricity  to  act  through  the  wire  we  stretch  for  it.  But  He  cannot  act  for  our 
sanctification  the  best  way  until  we  put  up  the  wire.  If  you  want  water  from  the 
reservoir  vou  must  not  expect  it  to  come  unless  you  lay  pipes  for  its  flow.  The 
fulness  of  the  fountain  will  not  lay  the  pipes.  All  powers  of  good  have  their  appro- 
priate channel  through  which  to  flow,  and  every  reasonable  man  will  look  for  good 
only  in  these  particular  channels. 

A  plain   dutv  is  tlnis  made  manifest,     (iod   lias  not    promised  to  give  the  Holy 


470  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.JOHN. 

Spirit  to  them  who  ask,  when  the  asking  means  no  more  than  the  utterance  of 
words.  It  needs  to  be  said  again  and  again  that  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not  wield  the 
truth  in  such  a  way  as  to  relieve  man  from  the  study  of  it.  We  may  complain  that 
we  lack  time  for  the  study  of  the  Bible.  We  may  say  that  other  things  absorb  all 
our  attention,  but  nothing  of  the  sort  can  atone  tor  a  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the 
scriptures  of  truth,  and  nothing  can  supply  the  loss  of  the  Spirit's  blessing  thereby. 
God  is  not  pleased  with  our  compliments  to  His  word,  so  long  as  we  neglect  any 
attention  to  it.  Our  hope  for  a  more  rapid  advancement  towards  Christ-like  char- 
acter lies  in  better  studied  Bibles.  The  trouble  with  the  church  is  not  that  it  is 
wicked,  but  that  it  is  weak.  The  Christian  goes  about  his  work  with  languid  step. 
The  spirit  is  willing,  but  feeble.  The  churches  need  a  new  feast  of  heavenly  bread, 
to  give  more  vigor  of  holy  choice  and  action.  When  the  hosts  of  God  shall  turn 
with  greater  eagerness  to  this  word  of  life,  then  they  will  go  forth  to  the  renewed 
conflict  "terrible  as  an  army  with  banners".  Christian  effort  can  be  sustained 
only  by  Christian  provender.  The  overflowing  life  of  Jesus  coming  into  believing 
hearts  through  the  Spirit  will  make  the  church  invincible. 


THE  DRAMATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPEL. 

BY    REV.    "VSril^aLiAIlD    BROWN    THORP, 

Pastor  of  the  South  CoNORECATtoNAi,  Church,  Chicac.o,  Ii.i,. 

Do  you  reiiKMiibcr  when  tirst  you  stumbled  upon  this  "Gospel  according  l«> 
St.  John"  in  the  old  Bible  at  home  in  your  childhood,  and  read  those  strangely 
impressive  and  mysterious  words  of  the  Prologue? 

In     THE     BEGINNING     WAS     THE     VVo^D,     AND     THE     WoKI)     WAS     WITH 

God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same  was  in  the  HE(;iNNiN(i 
WITH   God.      All    thincjs   were    .made    ijy    Mim;    and   without    IIim 

WAS  NOT  ANYTHING  MADE  THAT  WAS  MADE.  In  HiM  WAS  LIFE;  AND 
THE  LIFE  WAS  THE  LIGHT  OF  MEN.  AnD  THE  LIGHT  SHINETH  IN 
DARKNESS  ;     AND     THE     DARKNESS     COMPREHENDED     IT     NOT. 

It  is  like  the  opening  movement  ot  a  great  oratorio.  And  that,  perhaps,  more 
truly  than  any  other  word  expresses  the  quality  of  this  Book  of  John. 

Then  from  out  that  background  of  primal  mystery  emerges  a  human  figuie. 
the  prophet  of  the  wilderness. 

There    was    a    man    sent    from    (ioi),    whose    name   was    John. 
The   same   cwme    for   .\   witness,    to    bear   witness   of   the    light. 

We  find  ourselves  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan  where  John  is  baptizing;  and  in 
another  moment  the  central  figure  comes  quietly  upon  the  scene. 

Behold   the    Lamb   of    God,  which    taketh    away   the    sin    of 
the   world. 

Not  a  word  of  description  is  given.  The  Christ  is  simply  presented  as  moving 
about  among  the  crowds;  and  one  and  another  of  John's  disciples  go  to  Him,  and 
are  convinced  that  this  is  indeed  He  that  is  to  come. 

Two  striking  acts  of  Jesus  are  now  introduced, — one  at  Cana  of  Galilee,  the 
making  of  water  into  wine,  which  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  social  surroundings  in 
which  He  had  lived  ;  the  other  in  Jerusalem,  the  driving  of  the  money-changers 
from  the  temple,  with  the  accompanying  outburst  of  comment  and  criticism. 
Thus  far  it  has  been  almost  entirely  a  record  of  deeds,  the  words  being  confined  to 
a  few  laconic  utterances.  Now  action  gives  place  to  speech,  and  we  have  the  nighi 
incident  with  Nicodemus,  yielding  such  great  sayings  as  "  Ye  must  be  born  again  ", 
and  "God  so  loved  the  world".  A  day  scene  follows,  by  the  well  at  noon  in 
Samaria,  the  conversation  with  the  Samaritan  woman  leaiiing  up  to  the  great 
words  : 

God    is   a    spirit:    and  they    that    worship    IIim    mist    wokshii" 

Him  in   spirit   and  in  truth. 

The  action  now  shifts  to  Jerusalem:  and  the  healing  of  a  lame  man  waiting 
his  turn  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda  is  chosen  as  the  incident  about  which  gathers  a 
discourse  in  reply  to  the  charge  that  He  "  not  onlv  brake  the  Sabbath  but  called 
(Jod  His  own   Father". 

47' 


472  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

And  now  we  come  to  what  may  be  called  the  great  Third  Act  in  this  dramatic 
development.  It  is  the  crisis  in  Galilee ;  and  we  have  the  feeding  of  the  multitude 
by  the  lake,  the  attempt  to  make  Him  king,  the  withdrawal  into  the  mountain  to 
pray,  the  storm  on  the  lake,  and  on  the  morrow  the  great  discourse  centering 
about  the  words, 

I     AM     THK     LIVIMG     BREAD     WHICH     CAME     DOWN     FROM     HEAVEN. 

And  as  the  result  of  it  all  we  see  Him  abandoned  by  all  but  the  Twelve,  to  whom 
He  says,  "  Will  ye  also  go  away?"  and  Peter  makes  answer,  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall 
we  go.?     Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life". 

The  Fourth  Act  brings  us  to  Jerusalem  and  the  porches  of  the  temple.  We 
see  Jesus  in  the  midst  of  controversy,  parrying  the  thrusts  of  the  scribes  and  occa- 
sionally uttering  great  words  that  ring  immortal  through  the  ages. 

I     AM     THE     LIGHT     OF     THE     WORLD. 

If    any   man    willeth    to    no    His    will,    he    shall    know    of 

THE     TEACHING. 

Before  Abraham  w^as,  I  am. 

Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 

FREE. 

I     AND     THE     FaTHEI?     ARE     ONE. 

I  AM  THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD  :  THE  GOOD  SHEPHERD  I.AYETH  DOWN 
HIS     LIFE     FOR     THE     SHEEP. 

Chapters  seven  to  ten  are  filled  with  these  things,  all  leading  up  to  the  great 
event  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  enshrining  the  immortal  words, 

I     AM     THE     RESURRECTION     AND     THE     LIFE. 

The  last  act  begins  in  the  quiet  of  Bethany,  opens  out  into  the  swelling 
strains  of  the  triumphal  entry,  pauses  a  moment  for  discourses  which  yield  such 
sayings  as, 

Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die, — and — 

I,     if     I     BE     LIFTED     UP     WILL     DRAW    ALL     MEN     UNTO     MySELF, 

then  enters  the  peaceful  atmosphere  of  the  upper  room  for  those  last  discourses 
with  the  disciples, — and  finally  breaks  into  the  rvide  and  jarring  discords  of  the 
trial,  and  the  silent  and  majestic  solitude  of  the  cross.  The  treatment  of  each  of 
these  scenes,  with  all  the  minor  episodes,  is  a  consummate  work  of  art. 

And  then,  after  all  seems  to  be  over,  comes  the  epilogue  of  the  resurrection, 
which  is  treated  by  John  with  a  delicacy  of  feeling  surpassing  all  the  other  evan- 
gelists. It  is  centered  about  three  scenes,  that  w'ith  Mary  Magdalene  in  the 
garden,  that  with  doubting  Thomas,  and  that  with  Simon  Peter  by  the  lake  of 
Galilee,  with  the  words, 

LovEST   THOU   Me.?     *     »     *     Feed   My   sheep. 

And  the  Book,  which  opened  with  the  sonorous  notes  of  the  Prologue,  "  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word",  comes  down  to  the  level  of  ever_v-day  life  in  the  simple 
words  with  which  the  writer  lays  down  his  pen, 

And  there  are  also  many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,  the  which 
if  they  should  be  written  every  one,  I  suppose  that  even  the  world 
itself  would  not  contain  the  books  that  should  be  written. 


DRAMATIC  MOVEMENT  IN  ST.  JOHN'S  GOSPE/.       473 

Such  in  merest  outline  is  the  presentation  which  this  Book  makes  of  the  life  of 
Christ.  We  see  at  once  that  it  is  no  mere  chronicle.  It  is  a  work  of  art,  a  literary 
composition  of  the  highest  order,  with  a  dramatic  unity  anti  profiress  whicli  would 
make  it  an  admirahle  basis  for  a  great  oratorio.  As  soon  as  we  gras|>  'his  fact,  we 
have  the  explanation  of  many  of  those  striking  differences  that  exist  iK-tween  it 
and  the  other  three  Gospels,  which  are  comparati\elv  artless  recorils  of  such  recol- 
lections of  Jesus"  words  and  works  as  survived  in  the  early  church. 


*  ST.  JOHN'S  TEACHING  OF  FATHERHOOD  AND  SONSHIP. 

BY  RT.  REA^.  FREDKRIC  XiAJSr  HUNTINGKrON ,  S.  X.  D., 
D.  C.  L.,  T^L.  D., 

Late  Bishop  of  Central  New  York. 

Whatever  view  Christian  believers  may  take  of  the  person,  or  the  char- 
acter, or  the  doctrine,  of  the  Fourth  Evangelist,  or  in  whatever  aspect  he 
may  be  presented  to  the  mind  of  the  Christian  Church,  his  chief  claim  upon 
our  reverence,  our  confidence,  and  our  obedient  attention  must  rest  on  what 
he  affirms  of  God.  Manifold  and  luminous  as  are  the  subjects  of  study 
belonging  to  him,  as  Apostle,  Evangelist,  Instructor,  Author  and  Beloved 
Disciple,  yet  superior  to  every  other  element  in  his  greatness,  is  his  authority 
as  an  inspired  witness  to  the  ministry  and  mediation  of  the  second  Person  in 
the  Trinity,  God  the  Son.  No  Biblical  writer  creates  an  impression  of  living 
and  speaking  so  habitually  and  completely  encompassed  in  an  atmosphere  dis- 
tinctly supernatural,  or,  to  use  the  word  more  strictly  accurate  and  descriptive, 
superhuman.  Without  the  slightest  qualification  of  a  full  and  entire  humanity, 
or  manhood,  he  adds  to  every  intellectual  and  temperamental  quality  that  of 
dwelling  in  the  serenity,  purity  and  radiance  of  a  world  other  than  this.  The 
voice  speaking  out  of  that  loftier  sphere  is  never  so  penetrating  or  commanding 
as  when  it  assures  us  of  the  mind  and  will  and  love  of  Him  to  whom  both  worlds 
belong.  By  virtue  of  this  divine  eminence  he  is  distinctively  the  apostolic  theo- 
logian, to  a  higher  degree  than  St.  Peter  or  even  than  St.  Paul. 

Verifying  this  statement  we  need  to  look  not  much  beyond  the  indefinable 
but  yet  definite  style  and  tone  of  everything  preserved  to  us  that  John  wrote. 
That  it  should  not  have  suppressed  or  forbidden  a  large  part  of  the  strained  and 
narrow  criticism,  beyond  any  necessity  of  truth  or  scholarship,  which  has  at- 
tempted to  invalidate  the  evidence  for  the  genuineness  of  his  Gospel  is  discredit- 
able to  literary  candor.  This  Gospel,  without  systematic  or  scientific  intention, 
on  its  face,  with  a  form  and  method  singularly  original,  is  a  demonstration  from 
end  to  end,  of  our  Lord's  divinity.  No  such  object,  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  is 
expressly  apparent  on  its  pages.  As  a  biography,  or  an  abridgement  or  fragment 
of  one,  without  pretention  or  formality,  it  opens  the  eternal  mystery  of  revelation 
with  the  utmost  simplicity  of  narrative  and  m  ith  unadorned  reports  of  dialogue,  of 
divinely  exalted  meditation,  and  of  marvellous  discourse,  which  all  after-ages  were 
to  read,  study  and  ponder.  But  the  special  wonder  is  this.  While,  in  no  one 
expression,  and  no  specific  affirmation,  is  Christ  represented  as  declaring  Himself 
to  be  God,  and  in  no  language  that  a  serious  Gnostic  could  reject,  yet  the  evangel 
as  a  whole  offers  a  demonstration  of  his  superhuman  nature  and  relations  such  as 


*  This  article  is  especially  valued  as  it  was  written  only  a  {ew  months  (September,  1903)  before 
Bishop  Huntington's  death.  He  wrote  that  he  felt  at  first  he  could  not  accede  to  the  request  to  contribute 
lor  the  series  in  the  press,  but  "  since  coming  to  that  decision  I  have  been  particularly  struck  with  the 
repeated  repetition  of  the  name  'Father'  by  our  Lord  in  relation  to  the  First  and  Second  Persons  in  the 
Trinity.  This  impression  was  so  strong  that  I  put  my  thoughts  about  it  at  once  in  writing".  To  all  who 
knew  Bishop  Huntington,  this  article  will  prove  peculiarly  reminiscent  of  the  early  period  of  a  long  and 
distinguished  career. 

474 


TEACHING  OF  FATHERHOOD  AND  SONSHIT.  475 

no  Unitarian  ventures  to  question,  and  at  which  cvin  thi-  Arian  stands  in  awe. 
After  the  Oriental  proem  the  book  is  one  uniform,  lonsistcnt,  unvarvinjj  represen- 
tation of  the  relation  of  oneness  between  two  IVrsons,  (Jod  and  Jesus  Christ, 
under  the  personal  names  and  natures  of  Father  and  Son.  Reaii  the  whole  through, 
with  this  in  mind,  and  this  peculiarity  of  I-atherhood  and  Sonship  becomes  more 
and  more  signal  and- remarkable.  As  a  proof  of  the  absolute  unity  or  oneness  of 
the  two  in  their  nature,  and  so  of  the  Saviour's  proper  divinity,  nothing  could  be 
more  conclusive.  Parent  and  child,  two  personalities  with  one  and  the  same 
nature,  need  neither  analogy  nor  illustration. 

Yet  there  can  be  no  denying  the  fact  that  an  unorthodox  and  uncatholic 
theology  has  extensively  used  this  fact  of  parental  and  filial  relationship  to  sup- 
port the  heretical  theory  of  Christ's  inferiority  or  subordination  to  the  Creator, 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  monotheist's  onlv  Deitv. 

How  is  that  error  to  be  met? 

1.  In  the  human  generation,  the  inferiority  of  the  Son  to  the  Father  is 
temporary,  not  permanent. 

2.  It  does  not  necessarily  or  uniformly  imply  superiority  in  the  parent, 
intellectual,  moral,  physical,  or  any  kind  of  power. 

3.  The  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  eternal  genaration  of  the  Son  sets  a  final 
limit  to  the  force  of  the  analogy  and  its  doctrinal  use  in  the  Creed. 

4.  In  every  possible  form  of  teaching  short  of  an  explicit  and  literal  dec- 
laration, St.  John's  Gospel  provides  scriptural  authority  for  the  Nicene 
formula. 

Assuming  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John, 
that  Epistle  sustains  the  Trinitarian  dogmatic  teaching  of  the  Gospel. 


A    HIDDEN    REVELATION. 

(St.  John  21  :  15-17.) 
B^"    REA'.   .ta:m:ii;s   cmurch    ai^vorf*. 

Pastor  of  the  Globe  Congregational  Church,  Woonsocket,  R.  I. 

It  is  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  English  readers  of  the  Bible  that  certain  very 
delicate  and  subtle  shades  of  thought  lurk,  untranslatable,  or  at  least  untranslated, 
in  the  original  languages.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  Greek  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament. This  paper  takes  for  its  whole  subject  one  such  illusi\e  turn  of  thought 
in  the  last  chapter  of  John. 

This  chapter  was  added  after  the  rest  of  the  book  had  been  written.  The 
closing  verse  of  the  twentieth  chapter  is  evidently  intended  to  finish  the  Gospel  as 
well.  That  the  "beloved  disciple"  felt  the  story  of  the  twenty-first  chapter  too 
personal,  too  intimate,  that  he  shrank  from  revealing  this  wondrous  prophecy  of 
Jesus  concerning  himself  is  certain.  By  what  means,  or  by  whose  urging  he  was 
induced  to  add  this  heavenly  tale,  we  know  not.  All  we  know  is  that  we  have  it,  a 
treasure  beyond  purchase.     Let  that  suftice. 

We  are  not,  however,  dwelling  on  this  whole  great  treasvire,  but  on  one  special 
pearl  in  the  garland,  somewhat  dimmed  and  clouded  by  its  English  setting.  This 
pearl  you  will  find  in  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  verses  of  the  chapter. 
Here  is  recorded  a  conversation  between  Jesvis  and  Peter.  There  is  a  question, 
"  Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest  thou  Me?"  and  an  answer,  "Yea,  Lord;  Thou  know- 
est  that  I  love  Thee  ",  followed  by  a  command,  "  Feed  My  sheep".  It  is  true  that 
this  last  phrase  is  better  rendered  "  Shepherd — or  tend — My  sheep";  that  there  is 
an  added  touch  of  the  infinite  tenderness  of  Christ  in  the  fact  that  He  first  entreats, 
•'Shepherd  My  lambs",  even  before  He  thinks  of  the  wandering  sheep,  but  it  is 
not  of  this  that  we  are  speaking.  Suggestively  tempting  as  these  two  thoughts 
are,  we  pass  them  by. 

The  main,  the  primal  thing  lies  in  the  meaning  of  that  word  translated  love. 
It  is  two  words.  In  the  English  there  is  but  one,  "Lovest  thou  Me?"  "I  love 
Thee";  as  if  the  Master  and  the  disciple  caught  at  the  same  term.  This  is  just 
what  they  did  not  do.  For  there  are  two  kinds  of  loving,  and  two  Greek  words  for 
loving.  The  English  has  but  one.  So  we  are  fain  to  bungle  at  the  subtle,  the 
evasive,  the  profound  revelation  here  recorded. 

Now,  the  first  kind  of  loving  is  the  love  we  bear  for  men  at  large,  for  the  world 
or  for  the  church  universal,  for  the  truth,  for  a  neighbor,  for  an  enemy.  This  the 
Gieeks  called  by  a  word  yet  remaining  for  us  in  English  in  the  noun,  "  Agapae", 
by  Avhich  we  designate  the  love  feasts  of  the  early  Christians — a  word  sometimes 
found  among  the  Methodists  and  the  Salvationists  of  our  own  generation.  There 
is  no  equivalent  for  this  idea  in  our  vocabular}'.  "  Esteem  "  is  too  chilly  ;  "  adore  " 
too  high  flown  ;  "  love"  too  personal.  Let  us  translate  it  in  this  talk,  bitterly  as 
Ave  shall  wrong  it,  by  the  verb  "  esteem". 

But  there  is  another  style  of  love,  and  another  Greek  word  for  it,  too.  This  is 
the  love  a  man  has  for  his  father,  his  mother,  his  brother,  most  of  all  for  the 
maiden  he  would  wed.     This  also  is  preserved  for  us — rather  say  mummified — in 

476 


A  HIDDEN  RE  VELA  TION.  4  7  7 

the  English  "philter".  Love-philter,  wc  call  it.  hut  that  is  taiitoloKv,  tor  philter 
is  itself  a  love  charm — a  charm  that  will  awaken  in  a  woman  the  changeless  attri- 
tion of  a  wife.     This  second  Greek  verb,  this  philter  verh,  I  translate  "  love". 

Now,  do  vou  not  see  the  immense  significance  of  the  fact  that  the  first  time 
Jesus  speaks  He  uses  the  word  for  the  agapie — love?  "Simon,  son  of  Jonas, 
esteemest  thou  Me?"-  That  is,  lovest  thou  Me  in  the  large,  general  wav,  as  thou 
oughtest  to  love  the  church,  the  brethren,  the  world  for  whose  sake  thou  shall  be 
crucified?  That  is  a  large  demand,  but  Peter,  timid,  faltering,  tumultuous  Peter, 
overleaps  its  boundaries.  Peter  will  have  naught  to  do  with  such  diluted  phrases. 
He  turns  to  the  sweet  and  solemn  thoughts  of  household  aftection  and  cries,  "  I 
love  Thee".  Thou  art  to  me  father,  brother,  child  and  wife  :  "  I  love  Thee".  The 
quick  change  of  term,  the  proffer  of  this  warm  and  clinging  fondness,  touches  the 
Master.  But  He  asks  again,  "Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  esteemest  thou  Me?"  Again 
the  passionate  soul  of  Peter  changes  the  verb.  Again  the  confession.  "  I  love  Thee  ". 
Then  comes  the  splendor  of  it,  the  glorj  of  it.  At  the  third  asking  Jesus  uses 
Peter's  word,  and  questions,  "Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest  thou  Me?"  It  is  an 
incident,  a  chance  play  on  words, — a_ye,  it  is  more.  It  is  a  revelation.  By  a  mas- 
terly insistance  Peter  has  drawn  from  the  Saviour  the  statement  that  the  love  bind- 
ing us  to  Him  flows  from  the  scarlet  rush  of  human  blood.  It  goes  way  down  into 
the  depths,  and  tugs  at  familiar  heart  strings.  We  love  Jesus  as  we  love  the  little 
circle  around  the  breakfast  table  in  the  home, — and  He  responds  like  love  for  like. 
There  is  no  face  dearer  than  the  face  of  the  Master — nay,  not  even  a  mother's. 
There  is  no  hand  more  clinging  than  the  hand  of  the  Master — nay,  not  even  a  son's. 
There  is  no  heart  nearer  than  the  heart  of  the  Master — nay,  not  even  a  wife's.  One 
of  the  family  He  is.  He  sits  at  our  daily  board.  He  bends  beside  our  heavy  task, 
He  watches  our  troubled  slumber.  He  st'cketh  closer  than  a  brother  though  all  the 
world  desert  us.  That  heart-cry  out  from  the  midst  of  the  Old  Testament  is  ours 
today.  We,  too,  can  say,  "Very  pleasant  art  Thou  unto  me,  my  brother  Jesus; 
Thy  love  to  me  is  wonderful,  surpassing  the  love  of  women  ". 

\'ery  many  other  things  is  this  Redeemer  of  ours, — Lord  of  peoples.  Light  of 
nations,  Saviour  of  the  whole  world,  Hope  of  the  himian  race;  but  to  you  and  me 
forever  and  forever  is  He  still  "elder  Brother,  tender  Friend".  Long  before 
Charles  Wesley  saw  the  light  of  day,  Peter,  the  son  of  Jonas,  hid  in  the  Greek  of 
this  Gospel,  that  last  and  greatest  title  of  the  Lord  Christ.  "Jesus,  lover  of  my 
Soul". 


THE  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

BY    RKV.     C.     A.     I^.     RICHiVRDS,     D.     D., 

Rector  Emeritus  of  St.  John's  Episcopal  Church,  Providence,  R.  I. 

However  we  regard  the  Gospel  of  John,  as  the  work  of  an  apostle  directly  cog- 
nizant of  the  teaching  and  life  of  Jesus,  or  as  the  work  of  a  later  disciple  of  the 
Master  who  died  and  rose  again,  and  whose  power  of  self-revelation  therefore  was 
not  limited  to  three  j^ears  beneath  the  Syrian  blue,  of  one  thing  we  are  sure,  that 
he  who  wrote  it  cared  more  for  the  spirit  than  for  the  letter  of  his  Lord's  teaching, 
and  that  the  spirit  of  Jesus  was  to  him  especially  a  spirit  of  love.  Though  it  was 
Paul,  not  John,  who  wrote  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  i  Corinthians  and  drew  love's 
portrait  in  such  glowing  colors,  yet  it  is  John  who  is  known  through  the  churches 
as  the  apostle  of  love.  The  glory  that  Paul  saw  and  portrayed  John  lived  in.  Its 
atmosphere  was  his  daily  breath.  He  felt  that  it  was  the  Master's  habitual 
atmosphere,  and  it  is  as  love  incarnate,  love  for  a  season  tabernacled  in  our  flesh, 
that  John  most  clearly  revealed  Him. 

He  who  wore  our  flesh  still  wears  it.  The  church  is  His  bod}^  In  the  church 
then  love  eternal,  ever  living  love,  is  to-day  entabernacled.  How  far  is  the 
casket  worthy  of  the  Jewel  .^  How  far  is  the  shrine  fit  for  Him  Avho  looks  out 
from  it  on  the  world.''  How  far  is  the  body  the  facile  instrument  of  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  who  condescends  to  inhabit  it } 

John  tells  us  that  Jesus  prayed  that  His  disciples  might  be  one  even  as  He  and 
His  Father  were  one,  I  in  them  and  Thou  in  Me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into 
one.  Nineteen  centuries  have  gone  by.  Is  that  prayer  yet  fully  answered  ?  Is  the 
unity  of  Christendom  the  most  visible  fact  as  men  to-day  behold  it? 

I  open  my  Saturday's  paper  and  find  the  advertised  services  for  the  Lord's 
Day  that  is  to  follow.  They  are  multitudinous.  They  represent  not  one  broad 
Holy  Catholic  Church,  which  is  the  communion  of  all  who  are  or  would  be  saints, 
but  endless  divisions  and  sub-divisions  of  it.  If  we  think  of  them  as  the  voices  of 
Christian  worship,  they  must  be  heard,  not  in  one  great  vaulted  temple,  but  in 
endless  side  chapels  thereof.  The  central  nave  is  empty,  the  common  worship 
silent;  but  all  round  the  circuit  of  the  walls  go  up  various  conflicting  prayers  and 
praises.  Yet  as  incense  from  a  hundred  altars  may  rise  distinct  and  several 
columns  towards  heaven,  while,  as  it  ascends,  those  columns  draw  together  and 
become  one  common  cloud, —  so  from  the  countless  jarring  and  discordant  voices 
may  rise  at  last  a  common  chord  of  praise,  a  harmony  richer  and  fuller  than  any 
unison. 

Our  Lord's  prayer  lays  no  emphasis  upon  any  numerical  or  visible  unity. 
It  is  a  prayer  that  His  disciples  may  be  one  as  He  and  His  Father  are  one,  a  unity 
which  the  Athanasian  creed  expresses  by  the  scholastic  phrase  "  neither  con- 
founding the  persons  nor  dividing  the  substance".  If,  then,  the  several  bodies  of 
believers,  while  separate  in  organization  and  activity,  were  of  one  heart,  so  that 
the  spiritual  union  was  real  and  substantial  while  the  ecclesiastical  severance  was 
but  formal  and  accidental,  it  might  well  be  argued  that  there  still  remained  the 
unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  and  that  the  church  was  one. 

It  is  very  possible  to  exaggerate  the  significance  of  divided  Christendom,  to 

478 


THE  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH  479 

overestimate  the  necessity  of  structural  unity.  Certainly  catholicity  is  of  the  spirit, 
not  of  the  letter.  Great  churches  may  display  the  petty  mood  of  the  schismatic 
and  sectarian,  while  in  the  minutest  subdivision  of  Christian  people  may  yet  be 
nurtured  a  love  of  the  whole  rather  than  the  part,  a  joy  in  the  conunon  heritage  of 
believers.  Yet  who  can  fail  to  perceive  that  the  frai^mentary  condition  of  Chris- 
tendom is  highly  s-ymbolical?  It  expresses  and  suggests  the  actual  ravages  of 
the  spirit  of  sect,  of  party,  the  spirit  that  magnifies  differences.  The  cities  may 
scarcely  feel  this,  but  the  villages  bitterly  recognize  the  truth.  In  little  hamlets 
whose  worshippers  could  easily  be  sheltered  in  a  single  modest  church  and  be 
served  by  a  single  minister,  three,  four,  half  a  dozen,  perhaps,  of  Christian  so- 
cieties strive  for  preeminence.  Each  zealously  seeks  to  extend  its  jurisdiction,  to 
multiply  its  adherents,  to  crowd  out  its  neighbors,  to  survive  in  the  struggle. 
They  emphasize  their  oppositions.  Each  down  in  his  inmost  depths  believes  in 
one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  brotherhood,  one  God  over  all,  one  Saviour  for  all,  and 
desires  first  of  all  the  glory  of  the  one  kingdom.  Yet  each  seems  mainly  con- 
cerned, practically  occupied  in  rearing  fences  and  nm-sing  hedges  and  constructing 
earth-works,  and  the  world  scornfully  looks  on  to  see  the  landmarks  so  visible  and 
the  tillage  of  the  field  so  poor. 

There  are  those  who  would  not  defend  who  yet  excuse  the  present  divisions  of 
Christendom  as  not  without  use,  as  stimulating  a  healthy  rivalry,  as  spurring  to 
competitive  enterprise,  as  on  the  whole  furthering  the  general  growth.  They 
argue  that  there  is  more  room  for  individuality,  that  the  divisions  of  Christendom 
niav  be  held  to  be  a  useful  and  providential  ordering,  and  that  organic  churcli 
unity  is  but  a  mystic  dream.  As  long  as  a  narrow  and  false  conception  of  the 
church  prevails,  as  long  as  men  insist  upon  agreement  in  opinion,  on  rigidity  of 
structure,  on  uniformity  in  ritual,  so  long  sects  and  parties  may  be  the  inevitable 
recoil  and  reaction,  may  afford  the  only  opportunity  in  which  differing  natures 
find  room  to  breathe  and  space  to  move.  So  long  as  a  man  may  be  a  saint  of 
God  ripe  for  His  presence,  yet  without  home  or  welcome  in  any  particular  body 
of  believers  :  so  long  as  the  Anglican  Church  can  find  no  room  for  Baxter  or 
Wesley,  and  the  Lutheran  Church  no  room  for  Zwingle,  and  New  England  Con- 
gregationalism no  room  for  Channing,  and  Unitarianism  no  room  for  Parker,  and 
Northern  and  Southern  orthodoxy  alike  no  room  for  Garrison,  divisions  are  the 
natural  consequence,  the  providential  remedy.  If  the  church  general  be  built  too 
small  to  shelter  on  earth  the  destined  denizens  of  heaven,  all  sorts  of  out-build- 
ings, rude  sheds,  dwarfed  temples,  rickety  chapels,  make-shift  conventicles  will 
spring  up,  a  mushroom  growth,  on  every  side  about  it.  Its  bigotry  palliates  their 
schism.  Yet  schism  and  bigotry  are  evils  both.  Woe  unto  them  who  offend,  but 
woe  unto  them  who  cause  offense.  Both  may  be  forgiven,  but  neither  can  be 
justified,  and  who  of  us  dare  say  that  he  is  without  sin  in  this  regard .' 

Certainlv  the  Christian  ideal  is  of  one  body  with  one  spirit.  Certainly 
spiritual  unity  is  more  effectively  symbolized  and  expressed  by  one  organic  struct- 
ure than  by  a  hundred  independent  and  unrelated  growths.  If  we  were  one  in 
heart  how  naturally  would  we  approximate  in  life.  What  an  imjiressivc  and  con- 
vincing spectacle  it  would  be  to  a  jarring  and  wrangling  world.  See  how  these 
Christians  love  one  another,  see  how  closely  they  are  knit  together,  how  they 
harmonize  their  discords,  forget  their  differences,  magnify  their  points  of  agree- 
ment, how  every  sort  of  sage  and  saint,  of  lowly  penitent,  of  anxious  believer,  of 
eager  worker  finds  room  and  verge  enough,  large  liberty  and  full  opportunity  in 
this  body  of  redeemed  humanity,  this  glad  family,  this  imperial  community. 
Could  we  but  show  the  darkened  realm  of  heathendom  this  splendid  \  ision  I     But, 


48o  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

oh  —  the  difference!     What  moral  weight  is   lost  by  our  fragmentary  condition, 
what  force  is  scattered  and  wasted ! 

It  is  idle  to  look  for  corporate  union  until  spiritual  harmony  has  preceded  it. 
The  one  church  must  come,  not  by  surrender  of  this. part  to  that,  or  absorption  of 
this  part  in  that,  but  in  a  common  submission  to  one  Lord  who  shall  be  Prince  of 
Peace.  As  we  bow  beneath  His  Spirit  we  shall  perceive  how  few  things  in  religion 
are  essential,  that  love  is  indeed  the  one  thing  needful,  the  sure  cement  of  souls. 
Already  men  care  less  for  opinion  and  more  for  character  ;  less  for  theory,  more 
for  practice;  less  for  intellectual  adhesion,  more  for  moral  conformity;  less  for 
mint,  anise  and  cummin,  more  for  weightier  matters  of  gospel  and  law.  In  all 
quarters  are  found  those  who  watch  for  the  morning,  who  are  asking  not  what 
must  we  demand  as  the  price  of  reconciliation,  but  what  can  we  yield  and  sacrifice 
that  has  been  fainiliar  and  dear.  With  that  mood  God's  people  are  drawn  together, 
and  the  time  hastens  when  the  church  shall  indeed  be  one.  Why  in  the  twentieth 
century  may  not  the  miracle  be  wrought  ? 


ST.    JOHN    IN    ALL    AGES. 


"That  little  book  is  a  still  deeper  sea,  in  which  the  sun  and  stars  are  mirrored, 
and  it  there  are  eternal  truths  (and  such  there  are)  for  the  human  race,  they  are 
found  in  the  Gospel  of  John". — Herder. 

"This  Gospel  is  the  consummation  of  the  Gospels,  as  the  (iospels  are  of  all 
the  Scriptures". —  Origen. 

"  This  is  the  unique,  tender,  genuine,  chief  Gospel.  ♦  *  •  Should  a  tyrant 
succeed  in  destroying  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  only  a  single  copy  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  and  the  Gospel  according  to  John  escape  him,  Christianity  would  be 
saved  ". — Luther. 

"The  first  three  evangelists  give  us  diverse  aspects  of  one  glorious  landscape. 
St.  John  pours  over  that  landscape  a  flood  of  heavenly  sunshine,  which  seems  to 
transfigure  its  very  character,  though  every  feature  of  the  landscape  remains  the 
same  ". — Farrar. 

"  The  Gospel  of  John  is  the  most  original,  the  most  important,  the  most  influ- 
ential book  in  all  literature.  *  *  *  It  is  simple  as  a  child  and  sublime  as  a 
seraph,  gentle  as  a  lamb  and  bold  as  an  eagle,  deep  as  the  sea  and  high  as  the 
heavens  ". — Sclmff. 

"The  Fourth  Gospel  is  the  heart  of  Christ". — Ernesii. 

"  The  Gospel  of  the  world,  resolving  reason  into  intuition  and  faith  into  sight  ". 
—  Westcott. 

"The  diamond  among  the  Gospels". — Lange. 

"The  most  wonderful  of  all  religious  books". — Bicdermaiin. 

"  Written  by  the  hand  of  an  angel  ". — Herder. 

"It  is  a  Gospel  for  the  height  and  likewise  for  the  depth  ". — Da  Costa. 

"  The  Plato  of  the  inspired  circle". — Kaufman. 

"John  does  not  argue,  he  sees,  he  soars;  the  eagle  is  his  symbol". — Schajff. 

Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  is  said  to  have  remarked  in  reference  to  a  certain 
magazine  of  great  literary  merit,  but  at  one  time  somewhat  imbued  with  sceptical 
thought:  "  I  like  to  read  it,  but  when  I  have  laid  it  down,  I  always  read  a  chapter 
in  the  Gospel  of  John  ". — 

"If  the  heart  studies  the  Christ  as  portrayed  in  this  writing,  it  will  neetl  no 
other  proof  of  His  divinity". — Ellicott. 

"This  Gospel  speaks  a  language  to  which  no  parallel  whatever  is  to  be  found 
in  the  whole  compass  of  literature;  such  childlike  simiilicity,  with  such  contempla- 
tive profundity;  such  life  and  such  deep  rest;  such  sadness  and  such  severity;  and 
above  all,  such  a  breath  of  love". —  Tlioluck. 

"These  brief  sentences  *  *  *  as  inexhaustible  in  thought  as  they  are 
inartificial  in  language". — Dr.  Alexander  Maria rcu. 

"  Above  all  do  1  like  to  read  the  Gospel  oi  ]ohn"  .—  Claudius  {(ierman  />,>,t). 
"  Bird  of  God  !  with  boundless  flight 
Soaring  far  beyond  the  height 
Of  the  bard  or  prophet  old; 
Truth  fulfilled  and  truth  to  be- 
Never  purer  mystery 

Did  a  purer  tongue  unfold  ". 

—  Poet  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
481 


482  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

"The  doctrine  of  the  Word  made  flesh  shows  us  God  uniting  Himself  most 
intimately  with  our  nature,  manifesting  Himself  in  a  human  form,  for  the  very  end 
of  making  us  partners  of  His  own  perfection". —  Cha7niitig. 

"John's  Gospel  shows  us  how  deep  a  sense  Jesus  had  of  being  a  stranger  on 
the  earth". — Beyschlag. 

"In  the  Four  Gospels,  or  rather  in  the  four  books  of  the  one  Gospel,  the 
Apostle  St.  John  has  lifted  higher  and  far  more  sublimely  than  the  other  three  his 
proclamation,  and  in  lifting  it  up  he  has  wished  our  hearts  also  to  be  lifted". — 
Augustine. 

"  It  was  he  who  bequeathed  to  the  world  in  his  three  works  the  three-fold 
picture  of  the  life  in  God;  in  the  person  of  Christ  (the  Gospel)  ;  in  the  Christian 
(the  Epistles)  ;  and  in  the  church  (the  Apocalypse).  He  anticipated  more  perfectly 
than  any  other  the  festival  of  the  eternal  life". —  Godet. 

"  For,  verily,  beneath  the  tranquil  surface  of  this  Gospel,  which  is  filled  to  so 
great  an  extent  with  what  the  Lord  Himself  said,  are  deep  and  fervid  ocean-currents 
of  holy  life  and  love,  which  no  one  can  undertake  to  explore  and  describe  without 
being  made  to  feel  the  dimness  of  his  vision  and  the  feebleness  of  his  speech  ". — 
Hovey. 

"  Since  Irenaeus  it  has  remained  for  the  sons  of  the  apostolic  spirit  the  crown 
of  the  apostolic  Gospels". — Lange. 

"The  last  proposition, — the  Word  was  God, — is  against  Arius  ;  the  other, — the 
Word  was  with  God, — is  against  Sabellius  ". — Luther. 

"  St.  John  expresses  the  Divine  voice  with  absolute  authority  of  spiritual  life 
and  death  in  the  present  and  the  future.  *  *  *  Through  the  study  of  the 
Apocalypse,  we  are  able  in  a  vague  and  dim  way  to  understand  how  that  long  drawn 
out  living  death  in  Patmos  was  the  necessary  training  through  which  he  must  pass 
who  should  write  the  Fourth  Gospel.  In  no  other  way  could  man  rise  to  that 
superhuman  level  in  which  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  pitched  and  be  able  to  gaze  with 
steadv,  unwavering  eyes  on  the  eternal  and  the  Divine,  and  to  remain  so  uncon- 
scious of  the  ephemeral  world". — Professor  W.  M.  Ratnsay. 

"  If  I  live  yet,  it  is  for  good,  more  love 
Through  me  to  men  :  be  nought  but  ashes  here 
That  keep  awhile  my  semblance,  who  was  John, — 
Still,  when  they  scatter,  there  is  left  on  earth 
No  one  alive  who  knew  (consider  thisl) 
— Saw  with  his  eyes  and  handled  with  his  hands 
That  which  was  from  the  first,  the  Word  ofjLife. 
How  will  it  be  when  none  more  saith, '  I  saw '  ?" 


"To  me,  that  story— ay,  that  Life  and  Death 
Of  which  I  wrote  '  it  was ' — to  me,  it  is ; 
— Is,  here  and  now:  I  apprehend  nought  else" 


"  What  do  I  hear  say,  or  conceive  men  say, 
'  Was  John  at  all,  and  did  he  say  he  saw? 
Assure  us,  ere  we  ask  what  he  might  see  1 ' 


Such  is  the  burden  of  the  latest  time. 
I  have  survived  to  hear  it  with  my  ears. 
Answer  it  with  my  lips  :  does  this  suffice? 


S2:  JOHN  JX  ALL  AGES.  4S3 

For  if  there  be  a  further  woe  than  such, 

Wherein  my  brothers  struggling  need  a  liand, 

So  long  as  any  pulse  is  left  in  mine, 

May  I  be  absent  even  longer  yet. 

Plucking  the  blind  ones  back  from  the  al)yss, 

TJiough  I  should  tarry  a  new  hundred  years  I" 

Briywuiu<r :  "  A  Death  in  the  Disert'\ 
"  Whether  we  regard  the  siibliniitv  of  its  thought,  the  width  and  spirituality  of 
its  conception  of  religion,  the  depth  of  its  moral  insight,  or  the  tragic  pathos  of  its 
storv,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  we  have  before  us  the  work  of  a  master  mind.  And 
when  we  remember  how  it  has  moulded  the  faith  and  touched  the  heart  and  calmed 
the  sorrowsof  generations  of  men,  we  must  approach  it  with  no  ordinary  reverence, 
and  with  a  desire  to  penetrate  its  inmost  meaning  and  become  more  thoroiighlv 
imbued  with  its  kindling  power". — Dr.  James  Drtimiiiond. 

"We  would  not  willingly  give  up  for  any  other  form  of  narrative  a  (iospel 
which  reveals  to  us  what  the  Christ  grew  to  be  in  the  mind  of  one  who  leaned  on 
His  bosom  in  youth,  had  cherished  a  perpetual  recollection  of  Him  throughout 
long  years  of  toil  and  suffering  for  His  name,  and  at  the  close  wrote  as  in  his 
Master's  very  presence  his  testimony  to  what  his  Master  had  been  and  forever 
should  be — the  Light  and  the  Life  of  men". — Dr.  Armitage  Robiu<>ou,  Canon  of 
Westminster. 


PROGRAMS 

OF    THE    CONFERENCES 


INDICES 

TO   AUTHORS   AND  TEXTS 


PROGRAMS  OF  THE  CONFERENCES. 


FIRST   CONFERENCE.     (Ciiai'ter  I.) 

*  Held  Wednesday,  October  21,  1903,  at  the  First  Itaptist  Church,  Rev.  Henry  M.  King,  1).  D., 
presiding. 

.MORNINC;. 

10.00.     The  Prologue  to  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.     St.  John  i  :  i-i8. 

Professor    Clark    S.    Beardslee,    I).  I).,    Hartford    Theological    Seminary, 
Hartford,  Conn. 
Discussion. 
11.00.     Men  and  Events  in  the  Time  of  Jesus. 

Professor     Charles     F.     Sitterlv,     Ph.D.,     S.T.  D.,     Drew     Theological 
Seminary,  Madison,  N.  J. 
Discussion. 

11.45.     John  the  Baptist  and  His  Testimony  to  Jesus.     St.  John   i  :  19-37. 

Professor  William  Arnold    Stevens,  D.D.,   LL.D.,  Rochester  Theological 
Seminary,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Discussion. 

AFTERNOON. 

2.30.     The  Study  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John. 

Professor    Wilbert    W.    White,   Ph.D.,    President    Bible    Teachers    Train- 
ing School,  New  York. 
3.15.     "  Full  of  Grace  and  Truth  ".     St.  John   i  :  14. 

Professor      Henry     S.     Nash,     D.  D.,      Episcopal      Theological     School, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 
Discussion. 
4.00     The  Calling  of  the  F'irst  Disciples.     St.  John  i  :  38-51. 

Rev.    A.  C.  Dixon,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Ruggles   Street  Baptist   Church, 
Boston,   Mass. 

EVENING. 

7.30.     The  First  Chapter  of  St.  John. 

President  Wilbert  W.  White,  Ph.D.,  New  ^'ork. 
8.30.     Power  to  Become  the  Sons  of  God.     St.  John  1  :  12. 

Rev.    Floyd    W.    Tomkins,    S.  T.  D.,    Rector    of    Holy   Trinity  Episcopal 
Church,  Philadelphia,  Penn. 

SECOND  CONFERENCE.     (Chapters  II,  III,  IV.) 

1  Held  Wednesday,  November  11,  1903,  at  the  Mathewson  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Rev. 
Charles  M.  Melden,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  presiding. 

MORNINCi. 

10.00.     The  Miracle  at  Cana  and  a  Philosophical  Discussion  of   Miratli-s. 

St.  John  2:1-11. 
President  Augustus   H.   Strong,  D.  D.,   LL.D., 
Rochester  Theological  Seminary,  Rochester.  N.  Y. 
Discussion. 

♦At  each  Conference  the  presiding  officer  was  the  pastor  or  rector  of  th«  church  at  which  the  Confer- 
ence was  held.     Each  session  was  begun  with  a  brief  devotional  service. 

t  Rev.  Carter  E.  Cate,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Roger  Williams  Free  I'.aptist  Church,  and  Chairman  of 
the  Conference  Committee,  presided  at  the  evening  session. 

487 


488  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

II.CX3.     The  Optimism  of  Jesus.     St.  John  4  :  1-42. 

Rev.  Frank  J.  Goodwin,  Pastor  of  the  Pawtucket  Congregational  Church, 
Pawtucket,  R.  I. 
Discussion. 

11.45.     Jesus  and  Nicodemus — The  New  Birth.     St.  John  3  :  1-15. 

Rev.    Edward   Abbott,    D.  D.,  Rector  of   St.  James's  Episcopal  Church, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 
Discussion. 

AFTERNOON. 

2.30.     Eternal  Life  through  Belief.     St.  John  3  :  14-21. 
Rev.  Albert  H.  Plumb,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  Walnut  Avenue  Congregational  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 

Discussion. 

3.15.     The  Gospel  of  John  in  the  Spiritual  Life  of  the  Churches. 

Rev.   Henrv  M.    King,   D.  D.,  Pastor  of   the   First   Baptist   Church, 
Providence,  R.  I. 
Discussion. 

4.15.     The  Source  or  Condition  of  Jesus'  Strength.     St.  John  4  :34. 

Rev.  Willis  P.  Odell,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  Calvary  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
New  York. 

EVENING. 

7.30.     Some  Characteristics  of  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John. 

Rev.    Alexander    McKenzie,     D.  D.,     Pastor    of    the     First    Church, 
Congregational,  Cambridge,  Mass. 


THIRD  CONFERENCE.     (Chapters  V,  VL) 

*  Held  Wednesday,  December  9,  1903,  at  the   Beneficent  Congregational   Church,  Rev.  Asbury  E. 
Krom,  presiding. 

MORNING. 

10.00.     The  Works  of  Jesus.     I.     Resurrection.     St.  John  5  :  17-30. 

Rev.  George  P.  Eckman,  Ph.D.,    D.  D.,   Pastor  of  St.  Paul's  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  New  York. 
Discussion. 

10.45.     t  The  Secret  of  Jesus' Life.     St.  John  5:  30. 

Rev.  John   Balcom    Shaw,    D.  D.,   Pastor  of  the  West  End   Presbyterian 
Church,  New  York. 
Discussion. 

11. 30.    Jesus  the  Bread  of  Life.     St.  John  6  :  30-59. 

Rev.  Cornelius  Woelfkin,  Pastor  of  the  Greene  Avenue  Baptist  Church, 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Discussion. 

*  Rev.  James  G.  Vose,  D.D.,  Pastor  Emeritus  of  the  Beneficent  Church,  presided  at  the  afternoon 
session,  and  Rev.  Arthur  M.  Aucock,  Rector  of  All  Saints  Episcopal  Church,  at  the  evening  session. 

t  Owing  to  Dr.  Shaw's  unavoidable  detention  in  New  York,  this  address  was  postponed  to  the  February 
Conference. 


PROGRAMS  OF  THE  CONFERENCES.  4S9 

AKTKKNtlUN. 

2.30.     Symposium  by  Rhode  Island  Pastors  and  Laymen  on    the    (iospel  of   St. 

John  in  the  Churches. 
3.30.     Belief  the  Spring  of  Religious  Action.     St.  John  6  :  29. 

President     N.     E.     Wood,     D.  U.,      Newton     Thcoiogic.il      Itistiiution. 
Newton  Centre,  Mass. 
Discussion. 


7.30.     The  Confession   of   Peter — Christ,  the   World's  only  Hope    and    Life.     St. 

John  6  168,69. 
Professor   Henry    S.    Nash,  "D.   D.,    p:piscopal   Theological    School, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 


FOURTH  CONFERENCE.     (Chapters  VII,  VIII.  I\.   X.) 

*  Held  Wednesday,   January  13,  1904,  at  Grace  Episcopal  Church,    Rev.  Edmund  S.   Rousmanlere, 
presiding. 

MORNING. 

10.00.     Unbelief  the  Fundamental  Sin. 

Rev.    B.    L.  Whitman,   1).  D.,  LL.  D.,  Pastor  of  the   Fifth    Baptist    Church, 
Philadelphia,  Penn. 
10.45.     The  Personal  Equation  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  John. 

Rev.  Frederic  Palmer,  A.M.,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Andorer,  Mass. 
11.30.     Spirit  and  Life.     St.  John  7  :  37-39. 

Rev.  Amory  II.  Bradford,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church, 
Montclair,  N.  J. 

AKTERXOON. 

2.30.     The  Controversies  of  Jesus  with  the  Jews. 

Professor   Melancthon   W.  Jacobus,    D.  1).,     Hartford    Theological    Semi- 
nary, Hartford,  Conn. 

3.15.     The  Evidential  \'alue  of  Miracles. 

Professor     Charles    W.     Rishell,     Ph.  1).,     Boston     Lniversity    School    of 
Theology,  Boston,  Mass. 

4.00.     The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus. 

Rev.  William   R.   Huntington,  D.I).,   Rector  of  Grace   Episcopal   Church, 

New  \'ork. 


7.30.     Knowledge  of  the  Teaching  of  Jesus  through  the  Doing  of  the  Will  of  God. 
St.  John  7  :  17. 
Rev.  Francis  J.  McConnell,   Ph.D.,  Pastor  of  the  New  ^'ork  Avenue  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  \'. 
8.15.     Freedom  Through  the  Truth.     St.  John  8  :  31-36. 

Rev.  Everett  D.  Burr,  I).  D.,  Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Churcli  in  Newton, 
Newton  Centre,  Mass. 


*  Rev.  Arthur  M.  Aucock,  Rector  of  All  Saints  Episcopal  Church,  presided  at  the  afternoon  sassinn. 


490  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

FIFTH  CONFERENCE.     (Chapters  XI,  XII,  XIII.) 

*  Held  Wednesday,  February  lo,  1904,  at  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  Rev.  John  R.  Brown,  presiding 

MORNING. 

10.00.     Mysticism  in   the   Fourteenth,   Fifteenth  and   Sixteenth    Chapters  of   the 

Fourth  Gospel. 
Professor    Alfred    Williams    Anthony,    D.  D.,     Cobb    Divinity    School, 
Lewiston,  Maine. 
10.45.     The  Works  of  Jesus.     II.     Judgment.     St.  John  5  :  17-30. 

Rev.  Charles  M.  Melden,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Mathewson  Street 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Providence,  R.  I. 
11.30.     The  Secret  of  Jesvis' Life.     St.  John  5  130. 

Rev.  John  Balcom    Shaw,   D.D.,   Pastor  of   the  West  End  Presbyterian 
Church,  New  York. 

AFTERNOON. 

2.30.     The  Light  of  the  World.     St.  John  12  :  46.     (Compare  St.  John  S  :  12.) 

Rev.  Willard  Scott,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Piedmont  Congregational  Church, 
Worcester,  Mass. 
3.15.     The  Attracting  Power  of  the  Cross.     St.  John  12  132. 

Rev.  Avery  A.  Shaw,  M.A.,  Pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Brookline, 
Brookline,  Mass. 

EVENING. 

7.30.     How  the  Gospel  was  made. 

Professor    Frederick    L.    Anderson,    D.D.,    Newton    Theological    Insti- 
tution, Newton  Centre,  Mass. 
8.15.     The  Washing  of  the  Disciples'  Feet  and  the  Law  of  Service.  St.  John  13  :  1-17. 
Rev.  Edwin  Alonzo  Blake,  Ph.D.,    D.D.,    Pastor  of  the  Tremont  Street 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Boston,  Mass. 


SIXTH  C(3NFERENCE.     (Chapters   XIV,  XV,  XVI.) 

t  Held  Wednesday,  March  9,  1904,  at  the  Trinity  Union  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Rev.  J.  Francis 
Cooper,  presiding. 

MORNING. 

10.00.     The    Presence   of   the   Father,  Son   and   Spirit  through   Obedience  to  the 
Commands  of  Christ.     St.  John  14:21-23. 
Rev.  Robert  A.  Ashworth,  M.A.,  Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,   Meriden, 

Conn. 
Discussion. 

11.00.     JThe  Method  of  Jesus  with  Individuals.     St.  John  3  :  1-16  and  4  :5-26. 

President    William    Douglas    Mackenzie,    D.  D.,     Hartford    Theological 
Seminary,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Discussion. 


*Rev.  Edward  C.Bass,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Tabernacle  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  presided  at 
the  evening  session. 

t  Rt.  Rev.  William  N.  McVickar,  S.T.D.,  Bishop  of  Rhode  Island,  presided  at  the  evening  session. 

\  As  President  Mackenzie  could  not  be  present  at  this  hour,  his  was  the  opening  address  of  the  afternoon 
session. 


PROGRAMS  OF  THE  CONFERENCES.  49 > 

AKTERNODN. 

2.30.     The  Vine  and  the  Branches.     St.  John  15  :  1-16. 

Rev.  John  T.  Hecklev,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  New- 
port, R.  1. 
3.15.     The  Seventeenth  Chapter  ot  St.  John. 

Professor' Henry  T.  Fowler,   Ph.D.,  Brown  University,  Providence,  R.  1. 
4.00.     The  Glorification  of  the  Son  of  Man.     St.  John  13  :3i,  32. 

Professor    Samuel     Hart.     D.D.,    1).  C.  L.,     Berkeley    Divinity    School, 
Middletown,  Conn. 

l<VENIN(i. 

7.30.     Obedience  to  the  New  Commandment  the  Proof  of  Discipleship.     St.  John 

Rev.  Rockwell   II.   Potter,   Pastor  of  the  First   Congregational   Church, 
Hartford,  Conn. 
8.15.     The  Coming  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Law  of  Sacrifice.     St.  John  12  :  20-32. 

Rev.  Henry  C.   Mabie,  D.D.,   Home  Secretary  of  the  American  Baptist 
Missionarv  Union,  Boston,  Mass. 


SEVENTH  CONFERENCE.     (Chapters  XVH,  XVHI,  XIX.) 

*  Held  Wednesday,  April  13,  1904,  at  the  Central  Congregational  Church,  Rev.  Edward  F.  Sanderson, 
presiding. 

MORNINtJ. 

10.00.     The  Teaching  Function  of  the  Church. 

Professor   Frank    K.    Sanders,    Ph.D.,  D.D.,Yale    Divinity    School,   New- 
Haven,  Conn. 
10.45.     Jesus  the  Revelation  of  the  Father.     St.  John  14  :6-ii. 

Professor  Henry  C.  Sheldon,  S.T.D.,  Boston  University  School  of  'Iheology, 
Boston,  Mass. 

11.30.     The  Twenty-F'irst  Chapter  of  St.  John. 

President  Henry  G.  Weston,  D.D.,  LL.  D.,  Crozer  Theological  Seminary. 
Chester,  Penn. 

AFTERNOON. 

2.30.     The  Self-Surrender  of  Jesus  Christ.     St.  John  18  :  11. 

Rev.  George  M.  Stone,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Asylum  Avenue  Baptist  limn  h. 
Hartford,  Conn. 
3.15.     The  Crucifixion— "It  is  Finished".     St.  John  19  :  30. 

Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  A.  Jaggar,  D.D.,  Bishop  of  Southern   Ohio,  Cincinnati, 

Ohio. 

EVENINC;. 

7.30.     The  Home  at  Bethany  and  the  Friendships  of  Jesus. 

Rev.  Donald  Sage  Mackay,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the    Fifth    Avenue   Collegiate 
Church,  New  York. 
8.15.     The  Unity  of  Christianity  as  Revealed  in  the  Prayer  of  Christ.     St.  John  17. 
Professor    Henry    S.    Nash,    D.  D..    Episcopal    Theological    School,    Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 
•Rev    Fred  B.  Hill,  Assistant  Pastor  of  the  Central   Church,  presided  at  the  afternoon  se«ion.  and 
Rev.  Andrew  J.  Coultas,  Presiding   Elder  of  the  Providence  Uistrict  of  the  .Methodist   Kp.scop.l  Church, 
presided  at  the  evening  session. 


492  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

EIGHTH  CONFERENCE.     (Chapters  XX,  XXI.) 
Held  Wednesday,  May  ii,  1904,  at  All  Saints  Memorial  Church,  Rev.  Arthur  M.  Aucock,  presiding. 

MORNING. 

10.30.     The  Resurrection  the  Crowning  Fact  of  Christianity.     St.  John  20. 

Rev.  Herbert  Welch,  D.  D.,  Pastor  of  the  Chester  Hill  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  Mount  Vernon,  N.  Y. 
1 1. 15.     Sanctification  in  the  Truth.     St.  John  17  :  17-19. 

Rev.  D.  W.  Faunce,  D.D.,  Providence,  R.  I. 

AFTERNOON. 

2.30.     Friendship   with  Jesus  Through    Obedience  to   His   Commands.     St.  John 

IS  :  14.  i-v 
Rev.  John   D.   Pickles,  Ph.D.,  Pastor  of  St.  John's  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Boston,  Mass. 
3.15.     The  Author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

Professor    Clark    S.    Beardslee,   D.D.,    Hartford    Theological    Seminary, 
Hartford,  Conn. 

EVENING. 

7.30.     Jesus  and    Simon    Peter  at  the   Sea  of  Tiberias.—"  Feed   my  Sheep."     St. 

John  21. 
Rev.  Galusha  Anderson,  S.T.D.,  LL.D.,  Newton  Centre,  Mass. 
8.15.     The  Commandment  of  God  and  Life  Everlasting.     St.  John  12  149,  50. 

Rev.  Stewart  Means,  D.D.,   Rector  of  St.  John's  Episcopal  Church,  New 
Haven,  Conn. 


INDEX    TO    AUTHORS. 


(The  A.  B.  degree  is  indicated  by  the  date  after  name  of  college;  the  H.  D.  degree  by  dale  alter  name 
of  seminary.  Dates  in  brackets  after  names  of  college  or  seminary  indicate  period  of  study  without  degree. 
Dates  after  names  of  cities,  towns  and  counties  indicate  pastorates  or  rectorates.) 

EnwARi)  AiiHOTT,  1).  1).,  I).  Farinini^toii,  Mc.  ;  Iniv.  of  City  of  New  York, 
i860;  Andover  Theol.  Sem.  (1860-2);  Agent  of  the  U.  S.  Sanitary  Commission, 
Washington,  D.  C,  and  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  1862,  1863;  Founder  and 
first  Pastor  of  Stearns  Chapel  (now  Pilgrim)  Cong.  Church,  Cambridge,  Mass., 
1865-9;  Associate  Editor  of  "The  Congregationalist,"  1S69-78;  Editor  and  Joint 
Proprietor  of  "The  Literary  World",  1877-8S,  and  Editor  of  same,  1895-1903;  Min- 
ister of  St.  James's  Episcopal  Church,  Cambridge,  since  1878,  and  Rector  since  Dec, 
1879;  Chaplain  of  the  Mass.  Senate,  1872-3.  Author:  A  Paragraph  History  of 
the  U.  S.,  1S75  ;  A  Paragraph  History  of  the  American  Revolution,  1S76;  Revolu- 
tionary Times,  1S76;  History  of  Cambridge  (in  Drake's  Hist,  of  Middlesex  Co., 
Vol.  1),  1880;  The  Long  Look  Books  (Juvenile,  3  vols.),  1S77-80;  Memoir  of 
Jacob  Abbott  (Memorial  Edition  of  The  Young  Christian,  1882);  Phillips  Brooks, 
1900;  numerous  monographs,  sermons,  &c. 

James  Church  Ai.vord,  b.  Greenfield,  Mass.  ;  Williams,  1885;  Andover,  1888; 
Hamilton,  Mass.,  1888-93;  Woonsocket,  R.  L,  1893 — .  Contributed  articles  in  the 
"  Congregationalist";  stories  in  the  "Wellspring",  &c. 

Frederick  Lincoln  Anderson,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  b.  St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  old  Univ. 
of  Chicago,  1882,  and  A.  M.  (in  course),  1885;  Baptist  Union  Theol.  Sem.,  188S; 
Asst.  Prof,  of  Latin,  old  Univ.  of  Chicago,  1882-5;  Second  Baptist  Church,  Roch- 
ester, N.  Y.,  1888-1900  ;  Prof,  of  N.  T.  Interpretation,  Newton  Theol.  Inst'n,  1900 —  ; 
studied  in  the  University  of  Berlin,  1904-5.  Contributed  articles  for  Reviews; 
occasional  addresses. 

Galisha  Anderson,  A.  M.,  S.  T.  D.,  LL.  D.,  b.  Clarendon,  N.  Y. ;  Univ.  of 
Rochester,  1854,  and  A.  M.  (in  course),  1857:  Rochester  Theol.  Sem.,  (1854-6); 
Janesville,  Wis.,  1856-8;  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1858-66;  Prof .  of  Sacred  Rhetoric.  Church 
Politv  and  Pastoral  Duties,  Newton  Theol.  Inst'n,  1866-73;  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
1S73-6;  Chicago,  111.,  1876-8;  Pres.  of  old  Univ.  of  Chicago,  1878-85  ;  Salem,  Mass., 
1885;  Pres.  of  Denison  Univ.,  1887-90;  Prof,  of  Homilctics,  Church  Polity  and 
Pastoral  Duties,  Baptist  Union  Theol.  Sem.,  1890-2;  Prof,  and  Head  of  the  Dept. 
of  Homiletics,  the  Univ.  of  Chicago,  1892-1904.  Retired  from  the  active  duties  of 
his  chair  in  January,  1904.  Author:  Notes  on  Church  Polity,  1867;  Notes  on 
Homiletics,  1869;  Ancient  Sermons  for  Modern  Times  (translated  from  the  Greek), 
1904;  various  Articles  for  Reviews. 

Alfred  Williams  Anthony,  D.  D.,  b.  Providence,  R.  I.;  Brown,  1SS3; 
Cobb  Div.  Sch.,  1885;  studied  at  Univ.  of  Berlin,  1888-90;  Bangor,  Me.,  1885-8; 
Prof,  of  N.  T.  Exegesis  and  Criticism,  Cobb  Div.  Sch.  (elected,  18S7),  1890 — . 
Author:  An  Introduction  to  the  Life  of  Jesus,  1896;  The  Method  of  Jesus,  1899. 
Editor:  Preachers  and  Preaching,  1900;  New  Wine  Skins  :  PrcNonl  Day  Problems. 
1901,  &c. 

493 


494  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Robert  Archibald  Ashwortii,  M.  A.,  b.  Glasgow,  Scotland;  Columbia, 
1892,  and  M.  A.  (in  course),  1893;  Union  Theol.  Sem.,  1896;  Minerva,  N.  Y., 
1896-8;  Bridgeton,  N.  J.,  1898-1900;  Meriden,  Conn.,  1900 — .  Contributed  articles 
for  various  literary  and  religious  periodicals. 

Clark  Smith  Beardslee,  D.  D.,  b.  Coventry,  N.  Y. ;  Amherst,  1876;  Hart- 
ford, 1879;  Teacher  of  Hebrew,  Hartford  Theol.  Sem.,  1879-81  ;  studied  at  Univ.  of 
Berlin,  1881;  Le  Mars,  Iowa,  1882-5;  Prescott,  Ariz.,  1885-6;  West  Springfield, 
Mass.,  1886-8  ;  Prof,  of  Biblical  Dogmatics  and  Ethics,  Hartford,  1888—.  Author: 
Christ's  Estimate  of  Himself  (a  pamphlet),  1899;  Teacher -Training  with  the 
Master  Teacher,  1903  ;  Jesus  the  King  of  Truth,  1904. 

William  Coleman  Bitting,  M.  A.,  D.  D.,  b.  Hanover  County,  Va. ;  Rich- 
mond, 1877,  and  M.  A.;  Crozer,  1880;  Luray,  Va.,  1881-3  ;  New  York,  Jan.  i, 
1884 — .  Author:  Earthly  Blooms  from  Heavenly  Stems,  1900;  Foundation 
Truths — Bible  Study  Union  Lessons,  1902  ;  numerous  articles  for  magazines,  &c. 

Edwin  Alonzo  Blake,  Ph.D.,  D.  D.,  b.  Pittsfield,  N.  H.  ;  Wesleyan,  1872; 
Univ.  of  City  of  N.  Y.,  1896,  1897;  Ph.  D.,  1897;  Guilford,  Conn.,  1872;  Ken- 
sington, Conn.,  1873,  1874;  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  1875;  Babylon,  N.  Y'.,  1876-8;  New 
Yoi-k,  1879-81;  Port  Chester,  N.  Y.,  1882-4;  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  1885-7;  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.,  1888-91  ;  Patchogue,  N.  Y.,  1S92-3  ;  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1894-7  ;  Hartford, 
Conn.,   1S98-1901  ;  Christ  Church,  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  1902  ;  Boston,  1903 — . 

Amory  Howe  Bradford,  D.  D.,  b.  Granby,  N.  Y'.  ;  Hamilton,  1867;  Andover, 
1870;  studied  at  Oxford  Univ.,  1884;  first  Pastor  of  First  Cong.  Church,  Mont- 
clair,  N.  J.,  1870 — ;  Moderator  of  National  Congregational  Council,  1901-4; 
Pres.  Am.  Miss.  Asso.,  1904.  Author:  Spirit  and  Life,  1888;  Old  Wine:  New 
Bottles,  1892;  The  Pilgrim  in  Old  England,  1893;  Heredity  and  Christian  Prob- 
lems, 1895;  The  Sistine  Madonna  :  A  Meditation,  1897  ;  The  Growing  Revelation, 
1897;  The  Art  of  Living  Alone,  1899;  The  Spiritual  Teaching  of  the  Brownings, 
1900;  The  Return  to  Christ,  1900;  The  Age  of  Faith,  1902;  Messages  from  the 
Masters,  1903  ;    The  Ascent  of  the  Soul,  1903,  &c. 

Everett  Doughty  Burr,  D.  D.,  b.  Nyack  on  the  Hudson,  N.  Y.  ;  Brown, 
1884;  Crozer,  1887;  Chicago,  1887-91;  Ruggles  St.,  Boston,  1891-1900;  Newton 
Centre,  Mass.,  1900 — ■.  Author  :  (Pamphlets)  The  Church  :  Its  Present  Problems, 
1889;  Social  Salvation,  1899;  also  various  articles. 

Amzi  Clarence  Dixon,  D.  D.,  b.  Shelby,  N.  C.  ;  Wake  Forest,  N.  C,  1875  ; 
Southern  Bapt.  Theol.  Sem.  (1876);  Mt.  Olive  and  Bear  Marsh  Churches,  N.  C, 
1876-8;  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C,  1878-81;  Asheville,  N.  C,  1881-4;  Baltimore,  Md., 
1884-91;  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1891-1901  ;  Boston,  Mass.,  1901 — .  Author:  Heaven 
on  Earth  ;  Milk  and  Meat ;  Lights  and  Shadows  of  American  Life ;  The  Holy  Spirit 
in  Life  and  Service ;  Present  Day  Life  and  Religion  ;  The  Christian  Science 
Delusion  ;  besides  about  300  published  sermons  and  tracts. 

George  Peck  Eckman,  A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D.,  b.  Stoddardsville,  Penn.  :  Wes- 
leyan, 1884,  and  A.  M.,  1893;  Drew,  1886;  Univ.  of  City  of  N.  Y.,  A.  M.  (in 
course),  1894;  Ph.  D.,  1897  ;  Metuchen,  N.  J.,  1886-7;  South  Orange,  N.  J.,  1888-90; 
Orange,  N.  J.,  1891-3  ;  Morristown,  N.  J.,  1894-6  ;  New  York,  1897 — .  Contributed 
various  articles  for  periodicals. 

Daniel  Worcester  Faunce,  D.  D.,  b.  Plymouth,  Mass.;  Amherst,  1S50; 
Newton,  1853;  Worcester,  1854-60;  Maiden,  1860-6;  Concord,  N.  H.,  1866-75; 
Lynn,  Mass.,  1875-81  ;  Washington,  D.  C,  1881-9;  West  Newton,  Mass.,  1889-94; 
Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  1894-9.     Author:     The  Christian  in  the  World  (Fletcher  Prize, 


INDEX  TO  A  UTHORS.  495 

Dartmouth  College),  1875,;  A  Young  Man's  DilKcultics  with  his  IJible,  1877;  The 
Christian  Experience,  iSSo;  Resurrection  in  Nature  and  in  Revelation,  1884;  Praver 
as  a  Theory  and  a  Fact  (Fletcher  Prize),  1885  ;  Hours  with  a  Sceptic,  1S93;  Inspir- 
ation Considered  as  a  Trend,  1897;  Shall  We  Helieve  in  a  Divine  Providence?, 
1899;  Advent  and  Ascension,  1902. 

Henry  Thatcher  Fowler,  Ph.D.,  b.  Fishkill,  N.  \'.\  \  ale,  1890;  Ph.D., 
1896;  Yale,  189C-1  ;  teacher  in  Norwich  Free  Academy,  1891-j  ;  General  Secre- 
tary Yale  Univ.  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  student  Yale  Div.  Sch.,  1892-4;  Yale,  1894-5; 
Assistant  in  Biblical  Literature,  Yale,  1895-6  ;  Prof,  of  Philosophy  in  Knox  College, 
1S96-1901  :  Prof,  of  Biblical  Literature  and  History,  Brown,  1901  — .  Author: 
The  Books  of  the  Bible  Avith  Relation  to  their  Place  in  History.  1904  ;  Tiie  Proiihets 
as  Statesmen  and  Preachers,  1905. 

Fr.\nk  Judson  Goodwin,  b.  Rye,  N.  Y.  ;  Amherst,  1884;  Inion,  1888;  Glen 
Ridge,  N.  J.,  1888-99;  Pawtucket,  R.  L,  1S99 — .  Author:  A  Harmony  of  the 
Life  of  St.  Paul,  1895.  Articles:  The  Influence  of  St.  Paul's  Rabbinical  Education 
on  his  Spiritual  Life  (S.  S.  Times,  Aug.  i,  1S96)  ;  The  Rabbinical  Cast  in  St. 
Paul's  Theology  (S.  S.  Times,  Aug.  2:!,  1896);  The  Placcof  Miracle  in  the  .Modern 
Christian's  Faith  (Homiletic  Review,  Oct.,  189S)  ;  The  Biblical  Doctrine  of  Divine 
Justice  (Homiletic  Review,  Jan.,  1904). 

Samiel  Hart,  A.M.,  D.  D.,  D.  C  L.,  b.  Saybrook,  Conn.;  Trinity,  186''', 
and  A.  M.  (in  course),  1869:  Tutor  in  Greek,  Trinity,  1S6S-70;  Asst.  Prof.  ( 1S70-3). 
and  Prof.  (1S73-S3)  of  Mathematics,  Trinity  ;  Prof,  of  Latin,  Trinity,  1883-99  :  Prof, 
of  Doctrinal  Theology  and  of  the  Prayer  Book,  and  Vice-Dean,  Berkeley  Div.  Sch., 
1S99 — ;  Registrar  of  the  Diocese  of  Conn.,  1874 — ;  Custodian  of  the  Standard  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  18S6 — ;  Secretary  of  the  House  of  Bishops  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  1892 — .  Editor:  Satires  of  Juvenal,  1873;  Satires  of  Persius,  1875; 
Scipio's  Dream,  with  Notes  ;  Bishop  Seabury's  Communion-Office,  with  Notes, 
1874;  Manuals  for  Confirmation  (1895),  and  Communion  (1895),  and  Family 
Prayers  (1902).  Author :  Monographs,  Discourses,  and  Addresses  on  Connecticut 
History  and  American  Church  History. 

DoREMUS  Al.mv  Hayes,  Ph.  D.,  S.  T.  D.,  LL.  D.,  b.  Russehille,  Ohio;  Ohio 
Wesleyan,  1884  ;  Boston  Univ.  Sch  of  Theol.,  1887,  and  S.  T.  D.  (in  course")  1901 : 
Boston  Univ.,iS85-7  ;  Ph.  D.,  1887;  San  Leandro,  Cal.,  and  San  Loren/o,  1887-8; 
Prof,  of  Greek  Lang,  and  Lit.,  Univ.  of  the  Pacific,  1888-91  ;  studied  in  Berlin  and 
Leipzig  as  Fellow  of  Boston  Univ.,  1891-2 ;  Napa,  Cal.,  1892-5:  Prof,  of  Bibl. 
Theol.,  Ilift  Sch.  of  Theol.,  Denver,  Col.,  1895-6  ;  Prof,  of  the  English  Bible,  Garrett 
Bibl.  Inst.,  1896-1901;  Prof,  of  N.  T.  Exegesis,  1901 — .  Author:  Monograph  on 
The  Book  of  Acts  (in  Uift  School  Studies)  ;  article  on  The  Revival  :  Its  Power  and 
Its  Perils  (in  Church  Congress  Series)  ;  articles  in  Biblical  World  and  Denomi- 
national Papers. 

Frederic  Dan  Huntington,  S.  T.  1).,  D.  C.  L.,  LL.  I).,  b.  Hadley,  Mass., 
May  28,  1819;  son  of  Rev.  Dan  Huntington  of  Hadley,  who  was  first  a  Cong.,  then 
a  Unit,  minister;  d.  at  Hadley,  July  11,  1904.  Prepared  for  college  at  Hopkins 
Academy,  Hadley;  Amherst,  1839:  Harvard  Div.  Sch.,  1842  :  South  Cong.  Church 
(Unit.),  Boston,  1842-55;  Chaplain  of  the  Mass.  Legislature,  1S43:  First  Plummer 
Professor  of  Christian  Morals,  Harvard  College,  1855-60.  Confirmed  in  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  March  25,  i860;  ordained  Deacon,  September  12,  i860,  and  Priest, 
March  19,  1861  ;  First  Rector  of  Emmanuel  Church,  Boston,  iS(')i-9;  First  Bishop  of 
Central  New  York,  (Consecrated,  April  8,  1869),  1S69-1904.     Editor  in  turn  ot  The 


496  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Christian  Register;  The  Monthly  Religious  Magazine;  The  Church  Monthly; 
The  Gospel  Messenger.  Author :  Sermons  for  the  People  ;  Christian  Believing 
and  Living  ;  Divine  Aspects  of  Human  Society  ;  Helps  to  a  Holy  Lent ;  New  Helps 
to  a  Holy  Lent;  The  Fitness  of  Christianity  to  Man  (Bohlen  Lectures)  ;  Lectures 
on  Preaching ;  A  Pastoral  Supplication  ;  An  Old  Man's  Old  Testament  Petitions  ; 
Personal  Christian  Life  in  the  Ministry  ;  The  High  Calling  ;  The  Gospel  and  the 
People;  Christ  in  the  Christian  Year  (two  vols.)  ;  Gospel  and  Judgment;  Good 
Talking  a  Fine  Art ;  The  Golden  Rule  Applied  to  Social  Life ;  Christ  and  the 
World;  Forty  Days  with  the  Master;  Separate  Poems,  &c.;  Editor  of  two  Collec- 
tions of  Poems  : —  "  Lyra  Domestica",  and  "  Elim  ". 

William  Reed  Huntington,  D.  D.,  D.  C.  L.,  L.  H.  D.,  b.  Lowell,  Mass.; 
Harvard,  1859;  studied  Divinity  under  Rev.  F.  D.  Huntington,  Rector  of  Em- 
manuel Church;  Curate  of  Emmanuel  Church,  Boston,  1861-2  ;  All  Saints, 
Worcester,  1862-83;  Grace,  New  York,  1883 — .  Autkor :  The  Church  Idea,  1870; 
Conditional  Immortality,  1878 ;  The  Peace  of  the  Church,  1891  ;  The  Causes  of  the 
Soul,  1891  ;  A  Short  History  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  1893  ;  The  Spiritual 
House,  1895  ;  A  National  Church,  1897  ;  Psyche,  A  Study  of  the  Soul,  1899  ;  Sonnets 
and  a  Dream,  1899,  &c. ;  various  pamphlets  and  sermons. 

Melancthon  Williams  Jacobus,  D.  D.,  b.  Allegheny  City,  Penn.;  Prince- 
ton, 1877;  Princeton  Theol.  Sem.,  1881:  student  at  Gottingen  and  Berlin,  1881-4; 
Pastor  of  Presbyterian  Church,  Oxford,  Penn.,  1884-91;  Prof,  of  N.  T.  Exegesis 
and  Criticism,  Hartford  Theol.  Sem.,  1891 — ;  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  1903 — ;  Acting 
Pastor  First  Cong.  Church,  1899-1900.  Author:  A  Problem  in  New  Testament 
Criticism  (Lectures  at  Princeton  Theol.  Sem.  on  the  Stone  Foundation,  1897-8); 
various  articles  for  Reviews,  &c.  Contributing  Editor  in  charge  of  the  N.  T.  Dept. 
of  the  New  International  Encyclopaedia ;  Editor  in  Chief  of  the  forthcoming  Stand- 
ard Bible  Dictionary. 

Thomas  Augustus  Jaggar,  D.  D.,  b.  New  York,  N.  Y.;  educated  in  New 
York;  prepared  for  ministry  by  private  tutors  and  course  at  General  Theol.  Sem. 
Rectorates  :  Trinity,  Bergen  Point,  N.  J.,  1862-4;  Anthon  Memorial,  New  York, 
1864-9;  ^t-  John's,  Yonkers,  1869-70;  Holy  Trinity,  Philadelphia  (in  succession  to 
Phillips  Brooks),  1870-5.  Consecrated  First  Bishop  of  Southern  Ohio,  1875  ;  Retired 
from  jurisdiction,  Oct.,  1904;  preacher  at  St.  Paul's,  Boston,  1904 — .  Author: 
The  Man  of  the  Ages  (a  volume  of  Sermons),  1898;  The  Personality  of  Truth 
(Bohlen  Lectures  for  1900)  ;  Papers  on  The  Pulpit  and  Modern  Scepticism,  The 
Ministry  of  Phillips  Brooks,  &c.;  various  addresses. 

Henry  Melville  King,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  b.  Oxford,  Me.;  Bowdoin,  1859,  and 
A.  M.  (in  course  ,  1862;  Newton,  1862;  Instructor  in  Hebrew  at  Newton  Theol. 
Inst'n,  1862-3;  Dudley  Street,  Boston,  1863-82;  Emmanuel,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1882- 
91;  First,  Providence,  1891 — .  Author:  Early  Baptists  Defended,  1880;  Mary's 
Alabaster  Box,  1883;  Our  Gospels,  1895;  A  Summer  Visit  of  Three  Rhode  Islanders 
to  the  Mass.  Bay,  in  1651,  (1896);  The  Mother  Church,  1896;  The  Baptism  of 
Roger  Williams,  1897;  The  Messiah  in  the  Psalms,  1899;  Why  We  Believe  the 
Bible,  1902;  Religious  Liberty,  1903,  &c. 

Henry  Clay  Mabie,  D.  D.,  b.  Belvidere,  111.;  old  Univ.  of  Chicago,  1868; 
Bapt.  Union  Theol.  Sem.,  1875;  Rockford,  111.,  1869-73;  Oak  Park,  111.,  1873-5; 
Brookline,  Mass.,  1876-9;  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  1879-83;  Belvidere,  111.,  1883-5; 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  1885-8;  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  1888-90;  tour  of  Asiatic  Missions 
of  the  Am.  Bapt.  Miss.   Union,    1890;  Cor.    Sec.  of  the  Am.   Bapt.   Miss.   Union, 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS.  4<;7 

1890 — .  Has  devoted  the  last  fourteen  veais  to  a  wide  louring  ot  the  Northern 
States  of  America,  holding  ninneroiis  conferences  on  foreign  missions.  Aiifhor' 
Romanism  in  Four  Chapters,  1S90  ;  In  Brightest  Asia,  1S93. 

Francis  John  McConnell,  Ph.  I).,  I>.  Dresden,  Ohio;  Ohio  Weslevan,  i8«^  ; 
Boston  Univ.  Sch.  of  Theol.,  1897;  Boston  Univ.,  Ph.  D.,  1899;  West  Chelms- 
ford, Mass.,  1894-6;  Newton  Upper  Falls,  1897-9;  Ipswich,  1899-1902;  Harvard 
Street,  Cambridge,  1902-3:   Brooklyn,  \.  Y.,  1903 — . 

Donald  Sai;k  Mackav,  D.  D.,  I>.  Glasgow,  Scotland;  L  iiiv.  of  (ilasgow. 
18S5  ;  Seminarj  of  the  New  College,  Edinburgh,  1889;  St.  Albans,  Vt.  (Cong.), 
1890-4;  Newark,  N.J.  (Reformed),  1894-9;  Collegiate,  New  York,  1899 — . 

Alexander  McKenzie,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  b.  New  Bedford,  Mass.;  Harvard,  1859. 
and  A.  M.  (in  course),  1862  ;  Andover,  1861  ;  Augusta,  Me.,  1861-7;  ^^irst,  Cong., 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  1867—.  Author:  The  History  of  the  First  Church  in  Cam- 
bridge, 1873;  Cambridge  Sermons,  1884;  Some  Things  Abroad,  1887;  Christ  Him- 
self, 1891;  A  Door  Opened,  1898;  The  Divine  Force  in  the  Life  of  the  World 
(Lowell  Institute  Lectures),  1898  ;  Now,  1899;  Getting  One's  Bearings,  1903,  &c. 

William  Doiglas  Mackenzie,  D.  D.,  b.  Fauresmith,  Orange  River  Colony, 
South  Africa;  Univ.  of  Edinburgh,  i88i  ;  Scottish  Congregational  College, 
Edinburgh,  1882;  studied  at  Gottingen,  1886,  and  Marburg,  1895;  Pastor  at 
Montrose,  Scotland,  18S2-9  :  Edinburgh,  1889-95;  Prof,  of  Syst.  Theol.,  Chicago 
Theol.  Sem.,  1895-1903;  Preaching  Pastor  of  New  England  Cong.  Church,  Chi- 
cago, 189S-1903;  Prof,  of  Syst.  Theol.  and  Pies.,  Hartford  Theol.  Sem..  1904—. 
Author:  The  Ethics  of  Gambling,  1895;  The  Revelation  of  the  Christ,  1896; 
Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man,  1S97;  South  Africa,  Its  History,  Heroes 
and  Wars,  1900;  John  Mackenzie,  South  African  Missionary  and  Statesman, 
1902. 

Stewart  Means,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  b.  Steubenville,  Ohio;  Kenyon  (1869-72); 
A.M.,  1881;  Union,  1875;  Episcopal  Theol.  Sch.,  1876;  Bayonne,  N.  J.,  J876-9; 
Middletown,  Ohio,  1879-81  ;  Assistant,  St.  Ann's,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1882-3;  New- 
Haven,  Conn.,  1883—.  Author:  St.  Paul  and  the  Ante-Nicene  Church,  1904: 
Essays,  Sermons,  Translations,  &c. 

Charles  Manly  Melden,  Ph.  ]).,  D.  D.,  /'.  Salem,  Mass.;  Boston  Univ.. 
1880;  Boston  Univ.  Sch.  of  Theol.,  1883;  Boston  Univ.,  Ph.  D.,  1892;  Bytield. 
Mass.,  1882-3;  Lawrence,  1884-6;  Northampton,  1887-9;  Somerville,  1S90-3;  Brock- 
ton, 1894-7;  Pres.  of  Clark  Univ.,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  1897-1902;  Providence,  i</33— • 

James  Lee  Mitchell,  Ph.  D.,  b.  Limerick,  Me.;  Harvard.  1884;  Union.  1S87; 
Yale,  Ph.  D.,  1896;  Cadillac,  Mich.,  1887-90;  New  Haven.  Conn..  1890-K/Ji; 
Attleboro,  Mass.,  1901 — . 

Henry  Sylvester  Nash,  D.  D.,  b.  Newark,  O.;  Harvard,  ihj.S;  Kpis.  Theol. 
Sch.,  1881  ;  Prof,  of  N.  T.  Interpretation.  Epis.  Theol.  Sch.,  1882—;  Rector. 
Chestnut  Hill,  Newton,  Mass.,  1887-1902.  Author:  The  Genesis  of  the  Social 
Conscience,  1896;  Ethics  and  Revelation.  1S98:  History  of  the  Higher  Criticism  of 
the  New  Testament,  1900. 

Willis  Patterson  Odell,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D.,  b.  Laconia,  N.  H.;  Boston  Iniv.. 
iS8o;A.  M.  (in  course),  1890;  Ph.  D.,  1896;  Cliftondale,  Mass.,  1880-3;  Salem, 
1883-6;  Maiden,  1886-90;  Delaware  Ave.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  1890-5;  Richmond  Ave.. 
Buffalo,  1895-8;  Calvary,  New  York.  1898-190^  ;  Germantown,  Philadelphia,  1904—- 
Author:     Ministries  of  Hope,  1904:  numerous  pamphlets. 


498  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Frederic  Palmer,  A.  M.,  b.  Boston,  Mass.;  Harvard,  1869,  and  A.  M.  (in 
course),  1872  ;  Andover,  1872  ;  Private  Tutor,  1872-4;  Pastor,  Revere,  Mass.  (Cong.), 
1874-8;  Ordained  Deacon  in  Episcopal  Church,  1878;  Assistant,  Emmanuel  Church, 
Boston,  1878-9  ;  ordained  Priest,  1879  ;  Acting  Rector,  Lonsdale,  R.  I.,  1879 ;  Rector, 
Jenkintown,  Penn.,  1880-8;  Andover,  Mass.,  1888 — ;  Associate  Editor  of  "The 
Church",  1896-9.  Author:  Studies  in  Theologic  Definition,  1894;  The  Drama 
of  the  Apocalypse,  1903. 

John  Davis  Pickles,  Ph.  D.,  b.  St.  Andrevv^s,  New  Brunswick,  Can.;  Boston 
Univ.,  1877  ;  Boston  Univ.  Sch.  of  Theol.,  1873  ;  Boston  Univ.,  Ph.  D.,  1885  ;  Win- 
throp,  Mass.,  1877-80 ;  Lawrence,  1880-3  !  Melrose,  1883-6 ;  Lynn,  1886-91 ;  Worcester, 
1891-5;  Tremont  Street,  Boston,  1895-1900;  Westfield,  1900-03;  St.  John's,  Boston, 
1903 — .  Author:  Pamphlet  on  Methodism: — Historical,  Educational,  Doctrinal, 
Missionary,  1902;  Sermons  to  Grand  Army  Republic  on  Memorial  Sundays,  1904. 

Albert  Hale  Plumb,  D.  D.,  b.  Gowanda,  N.  Y.;  Brown,  1855;  Andover, 
1858;  Chelsea,  Mass.,  1858-72;  Roxbury,  Boston,  1872 — ;  Member  of  Prudential 
Committee  of  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  1882-1903.  Author :  Numerous  articles,  addresses,  &c. 

Edwin  McNeil  Poteat,  D.  T>.,b.  Caswell  Co.,N.  C;  Wake  Forest,  N.  C, 
1881;  Southern  Bapt.  Theol.  Sem.,  1885;  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C,  Aug.-Dec, 
1885  ;  Instructor  in  Latin  and  Greek,  Wake  Forest,  Jan.-June,  1886;  Johns  Hopkins 
Univ.,  1886-8;  Lee  St.,  Baltimore,  Md.  (supply),  1886-8;  Calvary,  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  1888-98;  Memorial,  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  1898-1903;  Pres.  of  Furman  Univ., 
Greenville,  S.  C,  1903 — . 

Rockwell  Harmon  Potter,  b.  Glenville,  N.  Y. ;  Union  College,  1895; 
(Yale,  1895-6;  Union,  1896-7),  Chicago,  1898;  Flushing,  L.  I.  (Reformed),  1898- 
1900;  First  (Cong.),  Hartford,  Conn.,  1900 — . 

Charles  Augustus  Lewis  Richards,  D.  D.,  b.  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Yale, 
1849;  Jefferson  Medical  School,  Philadelphia,  M.  D.,  1852;  Practised  as  phy- 
sician, 1852-4;  Theol.  Sem.  of  Virginia,  1858;  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  1858-61; 
Church  of  the  Saviour,  Philadelphia,  1861-5  ;  Trinity,  Columbus,  Ohio,  1865-9; 
St.  John's,  Providence,  1869-1901  ;  Rector  Emeritus,  1901 — .  Author:  Several 
papers  before  the  Church  Congress ;  article  on  Christian  Unity  in  the  Andover 
Review,  &c. 

Charles  Wesley  Rishell,  A.  M.,  Ph.  D.,  b.  Williamsport,  Penn.;  Witten- 
berg, 1876,  and  A.  M.  (in  course),  1879;  Drew  (1874-5);  studied  at  Univ.  of  Berlin, 
1889-91;  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  1876-8;  Winton  Place,  1878-80;  Delhi,  1880-3;  Avon- 
dale,  18S3-6  ;  Urbana,  1886-9  !  Cincinnati,  1891-4  ;  Springfield,  1894-5  ;  Prof,  of  His- 
torical Theol.,  Boston  Univ.  Sch.  of  Theol.,  1895 — ;  Asst.  Dean  Boston  Univ.  Sch. 
of  Theol.,  1904 — .  Author:  History  of  the  Christian  Church,  1891  ;  The  Higher 
Criticism,  1893  ;  The  Official  Recognition  of  Woman  in  the  Church,  1892  ;  The 
Foundations  of  the  Christian  Faith,  1899  ;  The  Child  as  God's  Child,  1904 ;  various 
articles  in  religious  and  theological  journals. 

Frank  Knight  Sanders,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D.,  b.  Batticotta,  Jaffna,  Ceylon  ;  Ripon 
(Wis.),  1882;  Instructor,  Jaffna  College,  Ceylon,  1882-6;  Yale,  1886-9;  Ph.  D., 
1889;  Asst.  (1889-91)  and  Instructor  in  Semitic  Languages,  Yale,  1891-2  ;  Asst. 
Prof.  (1892-4)  and  Woolsey  Prof,  of  Bib.  Lit.,  Yale,  1894-1901  ;  Prof,  of  Bib.  Hist, 
and  Archaeology,  and  Dean,  Yale  Div.  Sch.,  1901-5 ;  First  Pres.  of  Religious  Edu- 
cation Association,  1903-4,  and  Director  for  Life,  1904 — .  Author :  The  Messages 
of  the  Earlier  Prophets,  1898  (with  Prof.  C.  F.  Kent)  ;  The  Messages  of  the  Later 
Prophets,  1899  (with  Prof.  Kent);  Co-Editor  (with  Prof.  Kent)  of  The  Historical 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS.  499 

Series  for  Bible  Students  (10  vols.),  The  Messages  of  the  Bible  (12  vols.),  ami  of 
The  Library  of  Ancient  Inscriptions  (10  vols.);  Regular  Weekly  Contributor  of 
Senior  Bible  Class  Department  to  Sunday  School  Times  since  1895. 

Avery  Alhert  Shaw,  M.  A.,  h.  Berwick,  Nova  Scotia,  Can. ;  Acadia  College, 
1892,  and  M.  A.  (in,  course),  1895;  Rochester  Theol.  Seni.,  1896;  Windsor,  Nova 
Scotia,  1896-1900;  Brookline,  Mass.,  1900—.  Contributed  — Christ  a  Creation  or 
the  Creator  of  Christianity .?  (article  in  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  July,  1903). 

John  Balcom  Shaw,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  b.  Bellport,  N.  Y.;  Lafayette,  1885,  and 
A.M.,  1888;  Union,  1S88;  New  York,  1888-1904;  Chicago,  1904—.  Aulbor: 
Four  Great  Qiiestions,  1897;  Soul-Winning,  1902;  The  Difficult  Life,  1903;  The 
Work  that  Wins,  1905;  numerous  articles  in  the  Independent,  Observer,  Interior. 
Homiletic  Review,  &c. 

Henry  Clay  Sheldon,  A.  M.,  S.  T.  D.,  b.  Martinsburg,  N.  Y.;  Yale,  1867, 
and  A.  M.,  1870;  Instructor,  Delaware  Literary  Institute,  1867-8;  Boston  Univ. 
Sch.  of  Theol.,  1871;  studied  at  Leipzig  Univ.,  1874-5;  St.  Johnsbury,  Vt.  (supply), 
1871-2;  Brunswick,  Me.,  1872-4;  Prof,  of  Church  Hist.,  Boston  Univ.  Sch.  of 
Theol.,  1875-95  ;  Prof,  of  Syst.  Theol.,  1895—;  has  also  taught  Bib.  Theol.  of  the  N. 
T.  for  a  series  of  years.  Author:  History  of  Christian  Doctrine  (2  vols.),  1886; 
History  of  the  Christian  Church  (5  vols.),  1894;  System  of  Christian  Doctrine, 
1903  ;  numerous  articles,  &c. 

Charles  Fremont  Sitterly,  Ph.  D.,  S.  T.  D.,  b.  Liverpool,  N.  Y.;  Syra- 
cuse, 1883,  and  Ph.D.,  1886;  Drew,  1886;  student  at  Oxford,  Bonn,  Heidelberg, 
Leipzig,  Berlin,  1890-2;  Chester,  N.  J.,  18S6-8;  Cranford,  188S-9;  Madison,  1889- 
90;  Prof,  of  Bib.  Lit.  and  English  Exegesis,  Drew,  1892—.  Author:  Manu- 
scripts of  the  Greek  Testament,  189S;  History  of  the  English  Bible,  1899;  also 
contributions  to  church  Reviews  and  to  American  Journal  of  Theology. 

William  Arnold  Stevens,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  b.  Granville,  Ohio;  Denison. 
1862,  and  A.  M.,  1S65;  Rochester  Theol.  Sem.  (1862-3);  Classical  Tutor,  Denison, 
1863-5;  student  of  Philology  and  Theology,  Harvard,  Leipzig,  Berlin,  1865-8; 
Prof,  of  Greek  Lang,  and  Lit.,  Denison,  1868-77;  Prof,  of  Bib.  Lit.  and  N.  T. 
Exegesis.  Rochester,  1877 — ;  Biblical  study  abroad,  chiefly  in  Egypt  and  Syria, 
1882-3.  Author:  Select  Orations  of  Lysias,  1876;  Commentary  on  the  Epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians,  1887;  Outline  Handbook  of  the  Life  of  Christ  (with  Prof. 
Ernest  DeWitt  Burton),  1892  ;  Harmony  of  the  Gospels  for  Historical  Study  (with 
Prof.  Burton),  1894;  articles  in  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  Homiletic  Review,  &c. 

George  Marvin  Stone.  D.  D.,  b.  Strongsville,  Ohio;  Madison  Univ.  (now 
Colgate),  1858;  Hamilton  Theol.  Sem.  (now  Colgate),  (1859);  Danbury,  Conn., 
1860-7;  Winona,  Minn.,  1867-70;  Milwaukee,  Wis..  1870-3;  Tarrytown,  N.  Y., 
1873-9;  Hartford,  Conn.,  1879 — .  Author:  Public  Uses  of  the  Bible,  1891 ; 
numerous  articles  in  periodicals. 

Augustus  Hopkins  Stron(;,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  b.  Rochester,  N.  Y.;  Yale, 
1857;  Rochester,  1859;  travelled  in  Europe  and  the  P^ast  and  studied  at  I'niv.  of 
Berlin,  1859-60;  Haverhill,  Mass.,  1861-5  ;  Cleveland,  Ohio,  1865-72;  Prof,  of  Bib. 
Theol.  and  Pres.,  Rochester  Theol.  Sem.,  1872 — .  Author:  Systematic  'I'hcology 
[7th  Edition,  1903],  1886:  Philosophy  and  Religion,  1888;  The  (ireat  Poets  and 
their  Theology,  1897;  Christ  in  Creation  and  Ethical  Monism,  1899. 

Willard  Brown  Thorp,  b.  Oxford,  N.  \'.\  Amherst,  1887;  in  business  in 
New  York,  1S87-8;   Yale,  1891:   Binghamton.  \.  Y.,  1891-9;   Chicago,  1899 — . 


Soo  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Horace  Wayland  Tilden,  A.  M.,  D.  D.,  b.  Chesterville,  Me.:  served  in  Union 
Army,  1863-6;  Colby,  1872,  and  A.  M.  (in  course),  1875;  Newton,  1875;  Augusta, 
Me.,  1875-84;  Hyde  Park,  Mass.,  1884-9;  ^^^  Moines,  Iowa,  1889-98;  Livermore 
Falls,  Me.,  1899-1903;  Pierre,  S.  D.,  1904 — .     Author :  Sundry  sermons  and  essays. 

Floyd  Williams  Tomkins,  S.  T.  D.,  b.  New  York,  N.  Y. ;  Harvard,  1872; 
General  Theol.  Sem.,  1875;  Missionary,  Pueblo,  Col.,  1875-7,  ^n<^  Cheyenne, 
Wyoming,  1877-8;  Rector,  Kenosha,  Wis.,  1878-80;  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  1880-2; 
Keene,  N.  H.,  1882-4;  Asst.  in  charge  Calvary  Chapel,  New  York,  N.  Y., 
1884-8;  Christ  Church,  Hartford,  Conn.,  1888-92;  St.  James,  Chicago,  111., 
1892-5;  Grace,  Providence,  R.  I.,  1895-9;  Holy  Trinity,  Philadelphia,  Penn., 
1899 — .  Author:  The  Christian  Life,  1897;  Following  Christ,  1900;  My  Bes^ 
Friend,  1902 ;  Beacons  on  Life's  Voyage,  1904. 

James  Gardiner  Vose,  D.  D.,  b.  Boston,  Mass.;  Yale,  1851;  Andover,  1854; 
Greenfield,  Mass.,  1854-5;  travelled  in  Europe  and  studied  in  Berlin,  1855-6;  Prof, 
of  Rhetoric,  Amherst,  1856-65;  Dorchester,  Mass.  (supply),  1865;  Beneficent, 
Providence,  1866-1901 ;  Pastor  Emeritus,  1901 — .  Author:  Congregationalism  in 
Rhode  Island,  1894;  Children's  Day,  1S97 ;  articles  in  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  and  New 
Englander;  occasional  sermons  and  addresses. 

Herbert  Welch,  D.  D.,  b.  New  York,  N.  Y. ;  Wesleyan,  1887;  Drew,  1890; 
studied  at  Oxford,  1902-3;  Bedford  Station,  N.  Y.,  1890-2;  St.  Luke's,  New  York, 
1892-3;  Summerfield,  Brooklyn,  1893-8;  Middletown,  Conn.,  1 898-1 902 ;  Mount 
Vernon,  N.  Y.,  1903-5;  Pres.  Ohio  Wesleyan  Univ.,  1905 — .  Editor:  Selections 
from  the  Writings  of  John  Wesley,  1901. 

Henry  Griggs  Weston,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  b.  Lynn,  Mass.;  Brown,  1840; 
Newton,  (1840-2):  Tazewell  and  Woodford  Counties,  111.,  1843-6;  Peoria,  111., 
1846-59;  Oliver  St.  and  Madison  Ave.,  New  York,  1859-68;  Prof,  of  Practical 
Theology  and  Pres.,  Crozer  Theol.  Sem.,  1868 — .  Author:  Matthew,  the  Gen- 
esis of  the  New  Testament,  1900;  besides  several  brochures. 

Wilbert  Webster  White,  Ph.  D.,  b.  Ashland,  Ohio  ;  Wooster,  1881  ;  Xenia, 
1885;  Instructor  in  Prep.  Dept.  Univ.  of  Wooster,  1881-3 ;  Pastor,  Peotone,  111. 
(U.  P.),  1885-7;  Yale,  1887-90;  Ph.  D.,  1890;  Prof,  of  Hebrew  and  O.  T.  Lit., 
Xenia,  1890-5 ;  Instructor  in  Moody  Bible  Institute,  Chicago,  1895-6 ;  Special 
Bible  Work  in  India  and  Great  Britain  under  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  College  auspices, 
1896-1900;  Pres.  Bible  Teachers  Training  School,  New  York,  1900 — ;  Editor  of 
'•The  Bible  Record",  1904 — .  Author:  Thirty  Studies  in  the  Gospel  by  John, 
1895;  Thirty  Studies  in  the  Revelation,  1897;  Inductive  Studies  in  the  Minor 
Prophets,  1894;  Thirty  Studies  in  Jeremiah,  1895  ;  Studies  in  Old  Testament  Char- 
acters, 1900;  Availing  Prayer,  1900;  Thirty  Studies  in  the  Gospel  by  Matthew, 
1903;  various  pamphlets,  charts,  &c.,  on  Bible  Study. 

William  Calvin  Whitford,  A.  M.,  b.  Brookfield,  N.  Y. ;  Colgate,  1886,  and 
A.  M.  (in  course),  1890;  in  business  in  Brookfield,  N.  Y.,  1886-9;  Union,  1892; 
Berlin,  N.  Y.  (Seventh  Day  Baptist),  1892-3;  Prof,  of  Bib.  Languages  and  Lit.  in 
Alfred  Univ.,  1893—;  in  Alfred  Theol.  Sem.  (organized,  1901),  1901— ;  Contribut- 
ing Editor  of  Peculiar  People,  1894-6;  Editor  of  Helping  Hand  (S.  S.  Quarterly, 
Plainfield,  N.  J.),  1898—. 

Benaiah  Longley  Whitman,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  b.  Wilmot,  Nova  Scotia,  Can.  ; 
Brown,  1887;  Newton,  1890;  Portland,  Me.,  1890-2;  Pres.  Colby  Univ.,  1892-5; 
Pres.    Columbian    Univ.,    1895-1900;    Philadelphia,    1900 — .      Author:     Elements 


INDEX  TO  AUTHORS.  501 

of  Ethics,  1893;  Elements  of  Political  Science,  1899;  Outlines  of  Political  History, 
1900;   numerous  articles  on  Educational  aiul  Religious  Topics. 

CoRNKLii's  WoKLKKiN.  D.  D.,  /'.  Now  York,  N.  Y. ;  educateii  in  New  York, 
and  at  Christian  Bibl.  Inst.,  Stanford,  N.  Y.  ;  Stanford,  N.  ^■.,  1885-7;  llacken- 
sack,  N.  J.,  1887-92;  Jersey  City,  1892-4;  Mrooklyn,  N.  ^'.,  1894 — .  Author: 
Chambers  of  the  Soul,  1901. 

Nathan  Eu-sebus  Wood,  1).  1).,  b.  F'orrestville,  N.  Y.  ;  old  Univ.  of  Chicago, 
1872;  Bapt.  Union  Theol.  Sem.,  1875;  Chicago,  111.,  1875-7;  Principal  of  Wayland 
Academy,  Wis.,  1877-83;  Chicago,  III.,  1883-6;  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  1886-92;  Brook- 
line,  Mass.,  1892-4:  First,  Boston,  1894-9;  Prof,  of  Theology  and  Pres.,  Newton 
Theol.  Inst'n,  1899 — .  Author:  History  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Boston, 
1899:  Editor  of  Boise's  Notes  on  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  1896;  various  articles  for 
Reviews,  &c. 


INDEX  TO  TEXTS. 


(References  are  given  by  author  and  page  to  principal  texts  in  order  of  chapter  and  verse.  In  each 
chapter,  if  necessary  to  clearness,  sections  of  more  than  two  verses  are  indexed  first  in  order  of  first  verse 
of  section). 

1.  1-5  (F.  L.  Anderson,  417;  Thorp,  471)  ;  1-18  (Beardslee,  26-9,  398;  Nash, 
59;  F.  L.  Anderson,  417-8)  ;  1-51  (White,  22-5)  ;  6-13  (F.  L.  Anderson,  417)  ;  10-13 
(Jaggar,  339)  ;  14-18  (F.  L.  Anderson,  417)  ;  19-37  (Stevens,  30-41);  29-51  (Dixon, 
42-9;  Poteat,  453);  35-51  (Bitting,  ^63-4); — i  (White,  22-3;  Beardslee,  26-9; 
Strong,  63,  70;  King,  100;  McKenzie,  111;  Sheldon,  289,  293;  Fowler,  306;  Jag- 
gar, 339;  F.  L.  Anderson,  415,  435;  Mitchell,  450-2);  3  (McKenzie,  112;  Sheldon, 
289-90;  Beardslee,  399);  4  (King,  104-5;  Eckman,  118;  Burr,  206;  Beardslee,  399; 
F.  L.  Anderson,  415)  ;  5  (Nash,  59);  6  (Stevens,  30-2,  38-41);  6,  7  (Thorp,  471); 
7  (White,  10-15;  Burr,  206-7;  F.  L.  Anderson,  415)  ;  9  (Sheldon,  287,  290;  Beards- 
lee, 399);  II  (Mabie,  224);  12  (Tomkins,  50-8;  Plumb,  77;  Sheldon,  292;  Pickles, 
304;  F.  L.  Anderson,  415);  13  (Tomkins,  58;  Nash,  60;  King,  104);  14  (White, 
22-3;  Beardslee,  26-9;  Nash,  59-62;  Strong,  63-4;  Abbott,  74;  King,  105;  McKen- 
zie, no;  Mabie,  233;  Sheldon,  288,  290,  292;  Jaggar,  337,  343;  F.  L.  Anderson, 
414);  15  (Stevens,  35);  17  (Sheldon,  287);  18  (White,  22-3;  Sheldon,  287-8);  26 
(Stevens,  38);  29  (Stevens,  35-6;  Dixon,  42,  46;  Abbott,  74;  Plumb,  86;  McKen- 
zie, III ;  A.  A.  Shaw,  239;  Sheldon,  287;  Faunce,  321 ;  Thorp,  471);  30  (Sheldon, 
290);  31  (Stevens,  32-4) ;  33  (Stevens,  36-7)  ;  34  (Stevens,  34-5 ;  Dixon,  42);  37 
(Dixon,  42-4) ;  39  (Dixon,  46);  41  (Dixon,  44-7) ;  42  (Dixon,  47-8);  43  (White, 
20-1,  24-5  ;  Dixon,  45)  ;  45  (White,  23-4;  Dixon,  45)  ;  46  (White,  23-5  ;  Dixon,  45)  ; 
47  (Dixon,  48)  ;  48  (White,  24)  ;  49  (White,  17,  24;  Dixon,  48;  Pickles,  305)  ;  51 
(Dixon,  48-9). 

2.  i-ii  (Strong,  63-70;  McKenzie,  112,  113;  G.Anderson,  367;  Beardslee, 
399)  ;— 4  (Strong,  65  ;  Weston,  364)  ;  5  (White,  20)  ;  6  (McKenzie,  108)  ;  7  (Strong, 
65)  ;  II  (Strong,  63-70;  Abbott,  72;  Rishell,  201 ;  F.  L.  Anderson,  414);  19  (A.  A. 
Shaw,  239)  ;  19-21  (Welch,  349);  23  (Rishell,  201  ;  Mackenzie,  383). 

3.  1-15  (Abbott,  71-5;  McKenzie,  113;  F.  L.  Anderson,  419  20);  1-16  (Mac- 
kenzie, 382-9;  Whitford,  455-7);  14-21  (Plumb,  76-86;  Mackenzie,  384);  18-20 
(Plumb,  80);— I  (Beardslee,  437);  2  (Rishell,  201;  Welch,  351);  3  (Nash,  60; 
Abbott,  72-3;  McKenzie,  in,  113-4;  Whitford,  455-6);  4  (Abbott,  73);  5  (Abbott, 
73-5;  King,  104;  F.  L.  Anderson,  419-20;  Whitford,  456);  13  (Sheldon,  290);  14 
(King,  105;  A.  A.  Shaw,  236,239;  Bitting,  465) ;  15  (Abbott,  71  ;  Plumb,  76-7); 
16  (Tomkins,  50;  Abbott,  71;  Plumb,  79;  McKenzie,  in:  A.  A.  Shaw,  240; 
Sheldon,  290,  294;  Ashworth,  296;  Pickles,  305;  Jaggar,  343;  Whitford,  457)  ; 
19  (White,  19;  Melden,  126-7);  31,  32  (Sheldon,  290-1);  35  (Sheldon,  292);  36 
(Plumb,  77,86). 

4.  1-42  (Goodwin,  87-92;  McKenzie,  114-5;  Vose,  458-62;  Bitting,  464-5); 
5-26  (Mackenzie,  382-3,386-9);  7-15  (F.  L.  Anderson,  421) ;  16-42  (F.  L.  Anderson, 
421)  ;  43-54  (F.  L.  Anderson,  421);— 6  (McKenzie,  109-10)  ;  7  (White,  18;  Beards- 
lee, 438) ;  14  (McKenzie,  no;  Sheldon,  290);  19  (Rishell,  201);  23  (Goodwin, 
90);  24  (King,  105;  Burr,  215;  Thorp,  471);  26  (White,  17);  32  (Means,  252); 
34  (Odell,  93-8;  J.  B.  Shaw,  130-1  ;  Jaggar,  342  ;  Preface,  ix)  ;  35  (Goodwin,  88-9)  ; 
41  (Rishell,  200);  42  (W.  R.  Huntington,  191);  46  (White,  18), 

502 


INDEX  TO  TEXTS.  503 

5.  i-i6  (Jacobus,  164);  1-30  (Eckman,  118-23;  Miltlen.  1  J4-y) ;  i-47(HcardN- 
lee,  401);  21-23  (SheUion,  292)  ;— 4  (Eckman,  119);  6  (Eckman,  121-2;  Mchlon, 
126,  128);  16  (McKenzie,  115);  17  (Eckman,  120;  Mclden,  125;  Ja^'jjar,  33S)  ;  18 
(Eckman,  120-1;  Me Iden,  124-5  ;  A.  A.  Shaw,  240)  ;  19,  20  (Beardslce,  4CX})  ;  20 
(Rishell,  202;  Sheldon,  290.  292);  21  (Eckman,  121;  Mclden,  126);  n  (Eckman, 
122;  Mclden,  126);  23  (Mclden,  126);  24  (Mclden,  126);  26  (Eckman,  118; 
Sheldon,  292);  26,  27  (Jaggar,  339);  27  (Sheldon,  2S8);  28,  29  (Eckman,  122-3; 
Melden,  127);  30  (J.  B.  Shaw,  130-5);  31  (Mclden,  128);  36  (White,  15-17;  Mcl- 
den, 128;  Rishell,  200;  Burr,  207);  37  (Melden,  128;  Burr,  207);  39  (White,  11  ; 
Melden,  128;  Burr,  207-8);  40  (White,  19;  Burr,  207);  42  (White,  19);  46  (Mcl- 
den,  128). 

6.  1-14  (Beardslec,  399);  1-71  (Nash,  155-6);  30-59  (Woelfkin,  145-52);— 
9  (McKenzie,  115-6);  26  (Rishell,  202);  27  (Woelfkin,  149;  Sheldon,  287-8); 
29  (Plumb,  77;  Wood,  136-44;  Woelfkin,  149) ;  33  (Sheldon,  290;  Beardslee,40o)  ; 
35  (Woelfkin,  145,  149);  38  (J.  B.  Shaw,  130;  Woelfkin,  151);  40  (Jaggar,  338); 
46  (Sheldon,  290);  47  (Wood,  142-3);  48  (Sheldon,  292);  51  (Woelfkin,  150; 
Jaggar,  340;  Beardslee,  43S)  ;  53  (Jaggar,  337)  ;  53  (A.  A.  Shaw,  239)  ;  56  (Jaggar, 
337);  56,  57  (Woelfkin,  151);  57  (Sheldon,  292);  60  (Nash,  156);  62  (Sheldon, 
288,  290);  63  (McKenzie,  117;  Woelfkin,  150;  Burr,  215;  Sheldon,  287);  66 
(Rishell,  201);  67  (Nash,  156);  68  (Sheldon,  287)  ;  68-69  (Nash,  153-60). 

Chapters  7-10  (Jacobus,  161-6). 

7-  37"39  (Bradford,  1S7-8); — 17  (Wood,  136;  Whitman,  173;  McConnell,  177- 
86;  Mackay,  222)  ;  18  (Sheldon,  288);  31  (Rishell,  202);  37  (Jacobus,  165;  Jaggar, 
338;   Beardslee,  439);   37,  38  (Beardslee,  399);  46  (Rishell,  201);  50-52  (Pickles, 

305)- 

8.  31-36  (Burr,  205-17); — 12  (White,  21  ;  Sheldon,  287;  Faunce,  325;  Jaggar, 
337;  Beardslee,  399;  Poteat,  454);  28  (A.  A.  Shaw,  236,  239);  29  (Odell,  95;  J.  B. 
Shaw,  130-1;  W.  R.  Huntington,  189-96;  Sheldon,  288-9,  ^9'2)  ;  3°  (Rishell,  201); 
31,  32  (Beardslee,  439);  32  (Jaggar.  338);  36  (Burr,  208);  38  (Whitman,  173; 
Sheldon,  292);  42  (Whitman,  173;  Jaggar,  333);  44  (Whitman,  173);  46  (Tom- 
kins,  57;  W.  R.  Huntington,  1S9-96)  ;  47  (Whitman,  173);  56  (Jaggar,  343) ;  58 
(Sheldon,  290-1  ;  Jaggar,  338). 

9.  1-41  (Bitting,  465)  ; — 3  (Rishell,  202)  ;  4  (Rishell,  200;  Jaggar,  343)  ;  7  (Mc- 
Kenzie, 116);  n  (White,  19);  25-33  (Beardslee,  440);  34  (F.  L.  Anderson,  427); 
35-38  (Wood,  142);  39  (Mabie,  226). 

10.  8,  9  (Pickles,  301-2)  ;  10  (Burr,  205);  11  (McKenzie,  116;  A.  A.  Shaw, 
239,  242  ;  Beardslee,  440) ;  14  (Sheldon,  294) ;  14,  15  (Sheldon,  292);  16  (Prowler, 
306);  17,  iS  (Stone,  327);  18  (A.  A.  Shaw,  240;  Means,  252);  27  (Weston,  361); 
28  (Plumb,  76-7;  Sheldon,  294);  30  (Sheldon,  292-3;  P'owler,  306);  32  (Rishell, 
200)  ;  36  (Faunce,  319) ;  37,  38  (Rishell,  199-201  ;  Sheldon,  292)  ;  38  (P'owler,  30S-9). 

11.  1-46  (Mackay,  21S-23)  .—3  (Mackay,  220)  ;  4  (Rishell,  202)  ;  25  (Eckman, 
118,  123;  Melden,  127;  Jaggar,  338  ;  Beardslee,  440)  ;  35  (Mackay,  220)  ;  36  (Mackay, 
221);  43  (Mackay,  220-1;;  52  (Fowler,  307);  57  (Means,  252). 

12.  1-9  (Mackay,  218-23);  20-32  (Mabie.  224-35)  ;— 7  (Mackay,  220);  12-19 
(Beardslee,  441);  23  (Mabie,  224 ;  A.  A.  Shaw,  237);  24  (Jacobus,  165;  Mabie, 
224;  A.  A.  Shaw,  237;  Blake,  261  ;  Jaggar,  340);  24,  25  (Bitting,  465) ;  25  (Blake, 
261)  ;  25,  26  (Mabie,  231);  27  (Mabie,  233;  A.  A.  Shaw,  237);  27,  28  (Jaggar,  341 ) ; 
28  (Mabie,  225,  233;  F.  L.  Anderson,  434);  30  (Mabie,  233);  31  (Mabie,  225-35; 
A.  A.  Shaw,  243);    31,  32  (Jacobus,  165);    32  (McKenzie,  116;  Mabie,  225;    A.  A. 


504  THE  GOSPEL  OF  ST.  JOHN. 

Shaw,  236-48;  Hart,  268-9;  Jaggar,  341;  F.  L.  Anderson,  434;  Bitting,  465); 
36  (White,  20);  37  (White,  15;  Rishell,  201);  37-40  (Rishell,  203);  45  (Sheldon, 
288)  ;  46  (Jaggar,  338);  49,  50  (Means,  249-56). 

13.  1-17    (Blake,    257-67);    31-38  (Beardslee,  441);  33-35  (Fowler,   309);—! 
(Blake,  257,  360 ;  Sheldon,  294  ;  F.  L.  Anderson,  415 ) ;  3  (Blake,  259)  ;  5  (McKenzie, 
116);   10  (Tomkins,  58);   15  (Blake,  258,  265)  ;   16  (Blake,  265);   17  (Mackay,  222) 
21  (Anthony,  281)  ;  23  (McKenzie,  107)  ;  31-32  (Hart,  268-74);  33  (Anthony,  281) 
34  (Mackay,  219;  Means,  252  ;  Blake,  265-6)  ;  34-35  (Potter,  275-9;  Preface,  viii-ix) 
36  (Potter,  275;   Stone,  326);  38  (Anthony,  281). 

14.  1-3  (Welch,  351);  6-11  ''Sheldon,  287-94);  7-10  (Anthony,  282);  9-11 
(Anthony,  283-4)  ;  16-18  (Anthony,  282-3);  19-23  (Anthony,  283);  21-26  (Ash- 
worth,  295-300); — I  (Anthony,  282);  2  (King,  106;  Anthony,  2S2-3) ;  3  (Anthony, 
282)  ;  5  (Anthony,  284)  ;  6  (Burr,  206,  208 ;  Faunce,  320 ;  Jaggar,  338)  ;  8  (Anthony, 
384)  ;  9  (Stone,  329);  10  (Sheldon,  292);  10,  11  (Fowler,  306,  309);  11  (Whitman, 
175;  Rishell,  200;  Welch,  351);  12  (Anthony,  283)  ;  15  (King,  106;  Means,  252); 
16,  17  (Beardslee,  441-2);  20  (Anthony,  284;  Sheldon,  292);  21  (Means,  252; 
Pickles,  302-3);  23  (Pickles,  302;  G.  Anderson,  378);  26  (Anthony,  284);  30 
(W.  R.  Huntington,  194;  Mabie,  229);  31  (Means,  253). 

15.  I  (Mackay,  221-2);  3  (Sheldon,  287);  4  (Anthony,  283);  5  (King,  105-6; 
Burr,  214;  Fowler,  306);  9  (Sheldon,  2S8)  ;  10  (Means,  253;  Pickles,  303;  Fowler, 
306,  308);  12  (Means,  253);  14  (White,  20;  Mackay,  222);  14,  15  (Pickles,  301-5); 
15  (Mackay,  218,  222-3)  !  '^  (Beardslee,  400);  22-24  (Plumb,  77-8,  81)  ;  24  (Rishell, 
201 ) ;  26  (Anthony,  284). 

16.  7-15  (Sheldon,  287);  8-1 1  (Anthony,  284);  12-14  (J^gg^'"'  337^! — 7 
(Anthony,  282  ;  Jaggar,  339)  ;  9  (Jaggar,  339)  ;  11  (Mabie,  229)  ;  13  (Anthony,  284)  ; 
15  (Sheldon,  292);  21  (Jaggar,  340);  33  (Nash,  312;  Welch,  352). 

17.  1-5  (Faunce,  318);  1-26  (Fowler,  306-10;  Nash,  311-16);  4-8  (Nash,  313); 
6-19  (Faunce,  318)  ;  12-18  (Nash,  314)  ;  17-19 (Faunce,  317-25)  ;  20-26  (Faunce,  318)  ; 
21-23  (Richards,  478-80); — i  (A.  A.  Shaw,  237;  Nash,  312);  i,  2  (Jaggar,  339);  2 
(Sheldon,  288)  ;  3  (Plumb,  76;  McKenzie,  117  ;  Whitman,  176;  Means,  256;  Sheldon, 
287;  Nash,  312;  Jaggar,  339);  4  (Sheldon,  288:  Faunce,  318);  5  (Hart,  273;  Shel- 
don, 290-1  ;  Fowler,  307  ;6  (Faunce,  319) ;  9-11  (Nash,  314);  11  (Fowler,  307-8 ; 
Faunce,  318;  Jaggar,  338)  ;  12  (Rishell,  203;  Fowler,  307-8);  17  (Plumb,  85;  Til- 
den,  468-70);  18  (Jaggar,  342);  19  (Nash,  314-5);  20  (Jaggar,  342);  20,  21  (Fowler, 
308);  21  (King,  106;  Jaggar,  338);  22  (Fowler,  308-9);  22,  23,  (Nash,  315);  23 
(Fowler,  309;   Jaggar,  342);  24  (Fowler,  309);  25,  26  (Jaggar,  338);    26  (Nash, 

315-6)- 

18.  28-40  (Beardslee,  443); — n  (Stone,  326-31);  37  (Jacobus,  165-6;  Sheldon, 
287). 

19.  27  (Abbott,  72;  McKenzie,  108-9  '■>  28  (Jaggar,  342);  30  (A.  A.  Shaw, 
239;  Jaggar,  332-43)  ;  39  (Pickles,  305). 

20.  1-31  (Welch,  344-55)  ; — 21  (Beardslee,  400:  Preface,  ix) ;  22  (Beardslee, 
399)  ;  28  (White,  17,  23,  25  ;  Strong,  64 ;  King,  104  ;  Wood,  144 ;  Pickles,  302  ;  Welch, 
352;  G.  Anderson,  369;  F.  L.  Anderson,  435);  31  (White,  10-12,  15,  17,  20,  22-3; 
Plumb,  86;  King,  99-104;  Rishell,  199;  Welch,  345;  G.  Anderson,  366,  368-9; 
Palmer,  390-6;  Beardslee,  397-S ;  F.  L.  Anderson,  414;  Bitting,  463:  Preface, 
vii-ix). 

21.  1-14  (G.  Anderson,  368-71);  1-25  (Weston,  356-65;  F.  L.  Anderson, 
435); — I  (G.  Anderson,  366)  ;  6  (Weston,  356)  ;  8  (McKenzie,  108)  ;  11  (McKenzie, 
108);  15  (McKenzie,  117);  15-17  (Weston,  357-64;  G.Anderson,  366-79;  Beards- 
lee, 443;  Alvord,  476-7)  ;    18-19  (G.  Anderson,  378)  ;    20  (G.   Anderson,   369);    21 


INDEX  TO  TEXTS.  505 

(Weston,  364;  G.  Anderson,  379);  11  (Weston,  364;  (J.  Anderson,  379);  J3 
(Strong,  64;  G.  Anderson,  367);  J4  (McKcnzie,  109;  G.  Anderson,  369);  25 
(Weston,  365  ;    G.  Anderson,  366). 

Autlionliip.  White,  10-13,  17;  Stevens,  36;  Tomkins,  52;  Strong,  64;  King, 
100-3;  McKenzie,  107-111,  115,  117;  Ecknian,  iiS;  Nash,  153-4,  '^M  >  ^»-  Anderson, 
36S-9;  Palmer,  390-6  ;,Bcard8lee,  397-402;  Richards,  478;   Riggs,  (Preface)  viii-x. 

Characteristics.  White,  10-3,  17-8,20-3;  Beardslee,  26-9,  397-402 ;  Tomkins, 
50;  Nash,  59,  153-4,  3"'  Strong,  63-5;  King,  99-106,  (Preface)  iv  ;  McKenzie, 
107-17;  Wood,  136;  Jacobus,  163-4;  Ashworth,  295;  Jaggar,  336-8;  Weston,  356, 
444-6;  G.  Anderson,  367-9;  Mackenzie,  382,  384;  Palmer,  390-6;  F.  L.  Anderson, 
414;  Hayes,  447-9;  Poteat ,  453-4 ;  Vose,  45S;  Bitting,  463;  Thorp,  471-3;  F.  D. 
Huntington,  474-5;  Richards,  478;  Riggs,  (Preface)  viii-x  :  Preface,  v,  vii,  viii. 
Analysis  of  the  Gospel.     qF.   L.  Anderson). 

Preface,  4i4*5' 

General  Analysis.         415-6. 
i:  1-18,  416-8. 

i:  19 — 4:  54,  418-21. 

5:1  —  12:50,  422-9. 

13:1—20:31,  429-35- 

21:1-25,  435-6- 

Suggestix'e  Studies  and  References.     (Beardslee).     Chapters   1-21,437-43. 
St.  John  in  All  Ages.     King,  99-103;   Hayes,  447-8;  also  4S1-3. 


BS2615.8.A22 

Addresses  on  the  Gospel  of  St.  John 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00063  6474 


,ir  ft ,  Miif fil 


I.!  '( 


